


Kept Under Close Wraps

by arysthaeniru



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Gen, Ghosts, halloween fic ahoy, inaccurate spirit stuff, please don't try this at home i bsed the spirit stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-28
Updated: 2014-11-01
Packaged: 2018-02-22 23:36:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 26,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2525846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arysthaeniru/pseuds/arysthaeniru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A visit to Sanada's grandfather's old house to photograph its condition should have just been a two hour job. What happened next was unexpected to all involved.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired heavily by [What Should Never have Been Found](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5518956/1/What-Should-Have-Never-Been-Found) by No.13

“This is the house that your grandfather inherited?” asked Yukimura, skeptically, as he looked up at the slowly decaying building. 

Sanada pulled a face. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant sight to see, with rotting wood and smashed glass and huge piles of unswept leaves gathered everywhere. The doors were barely attached with only one hinge swinging creakily in the breeze and the metal had long since rusted to a sickly green and red. The grass outside was dying, yellow, matted and overgrown and swatches of ivy crept up the rotting walls.

“I would ask if this is a really a Sanada residence, but since there is no other house for another few kilometres, it’s hard to be wrong.” stated Yanagi with a sigh. 

“It’s not so bad.” said Sanada, with a stern look. “It...just needs some paint.”

“It needs to be burnt to the ground and rebuilt, that’s what it needs.” said Yukimura dryly, as he adjusted the scarf across his face. “It’s a biochemical hazard waiting to happen.”

“Just take the pictures and then we can go and eat some takoyaki at Renji’s house this evening.” said Sanada crossly. 

Yukimura placed the tripod down from where it was hoisted over his shoulder and pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket. “Outside view, back garden, front room, kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms. Basically every room?” he asked, as he pulled out the camera from a snug bag and attached it to the stand. 

“Not the tea rooms, or the showcase rooms.” explained Sanada from what he remembered of the original design of the house. “But yes, everything else.”

Yukimura laughed as he pulled out some film and inserted it into the camera. “Lots of work, I see.”

Sanada smiled apologetically, as he pulled his hat further down over his head. He would have done it himself, but his camera work was shoddy at best and blurry at worst. Yukimura, on the other hand, made every picture he took look like a work of art.

“Would you like to get in front of the camera and smile for your grandfather? Lord knows how rare that is.” teased Yukimura, as he knelt down to take the photo. 

“Seiichi.” said Sanada warningly and Yukimura cracked a grin. Honestly, this was supposed to be a serious picture, not one of those _purikura_ booths. 

“Okay, let’s hope there isn’t a breeze for another thirty seconds.” Yukimura hummed, as he knelt by the camera. 

“How long ago did you say that your great-uncle died, Genichirou?” asked Yanagi curiously, from where he was taking his own, less formal pictures, using the camera on his phone. He’d accompanied the excursion, since today had supposed to be one of their movie days, but had been upstaged by Sanada’s request. At least they could still spend some time together, before the entrance exam studying really hit them after the winter break. 

“Hmm....Grandfather moved away from home around fifty years ago and then Great-Uncle died four years afterwards. Nobody looked after the house after that, because it belonged to Great-Aunt who moved away to Tokyo...” said Sanada, thinking aloud, as he pulled his scarf around his neck a little tighter. It was an old house and honestly, Sanada was surprised that the'd just left it alone for so long. It wasn't much like his family to just forget a house altogether. 

Yanagi groaned. “It’s not just a biochemical hazard, it’s a building hazard. One false step and the building could collapse around us. Since it’s made of primarily wood and it’s had forty-six years of unchecked decay, there’s an almost eighty-five perfect chance of it collapsing while we’re inside.” 

Sanada paled and Yukimura sighed, as he brushed back some of his blue-black hair. “That....is unfortunate. I feel a lot less eager about this venture, now.” he said, as he closed the shutter on his camera and picked it up again. 

Sanada’s face turned sterner. “I won’t let grandfather down. He needs these photos. And besides, people have worked with worse odds. Fuji only had a five percent chance of winning when he was playing tennis blind and look how that turned out.” 

Yukimura groaned and smacked Sanada’s shoulder. “ _Don’t_ remind me of your failure at the Kanto finals. The nationals disaster was bad enough. Kanto was supposed to have been ours.” 

Yanagi frowned with a sigh, as he ignored Sanada's slight grumble of discontent and Yukimura's affronted scowl. “Very well. Let’s go, shall we?”

They waded their way through the thick grass, with Yukimura foisting off the tripod to Sanada halfway through, so he could focus on not tripping and falling and never being seen again through the thick grass. Finally, they reached the front door and Sanada started rummaging in his pockets for the keys.

“I don’t think that’s necessary, Genichirou.” said Yanagi, as he poked the door slightly and it fell off the hinge altogether, with a large thump that sent up a cloud of dust. 

Yukimura snorted lightly, and Sanada scowled. “Keep the house intact, would you, Renji?” he demanded, as he stepped over the wooden door. 

“Heavens. And I thought that the outside of the house was bad.” Yukimura took his tripod from Sanada and placed it down in the living room. He had to viciously bat around his face to avoid the resulting dust cloud and coughed pathetically to get the residue out from his lungs. Yanagi just reached into his pocket and handed Yukimura a handkerchief, which he gratefully tied around his face.

“My fingers are fucking freezing.” said Yukimura, his voice somewhat muffled. “It’s far too cold for early October.” 

“Once we’ve finished this, we can go get a hot coffee from the train station in Kanagawa.” said Sanada, as he shivered a little. He agreed with Yukimura’s sentiments, but being defeated by the cold wasn’t a Sanada thing to do. Now the smell on the other hand....

“Oh, we’d better.” said Yanagi, as he looked at some curtains, a disdainful look on his face, as he screwed up his nose. “Did something die in here, Genichirou?” 

Sanada frowned. The smell was pretty awful, but not that bad...? “Not to my knowledge. Great-Uncle died in hospital and Great-Aunt’s in Tokyo. But probably some small animal took refuge here and died.” he said, as he knelt down to poke at some of the rotting tatami mats. He couldn’t see into the dark beneath, but there were probably a few rats there. 

Yanagi frowned. “To make a smell like this, more than one small rodent or animal would have to die here...I make an estimate of around five, if the roadkill smells outside of town are any indicati--” 

“Not to change the topic from dead animals or anything,” interrupted Yukimura, as he gingerly knelt down to take the shot, testing the ground he was leaning on. “But don’t you think this would be the perfect haunted house for the Halloween Location Party this year?”

Yanagi shook his head firmly, pulling away from thoughts of dead animals, quickly. “It’s out in the middle of nowhere, for one. And as creepy as it is, it’s also a disaster waiting to happen. This place is falling apart. Besides, Yagyuu hates haunted houses, you know that. And imagine if we let Niou loose in here.” Then he shuddered. “Or worse yet, Akaya.”

“There wouldn’t be a house left if Akaya was in here. He’s terrified of ghosts and he’d destroy everything in his fear.” said Sanada, with a frown, as he crossed his arms over his chest and rolled his eyes. 

“No need to hire a demolition squad, just use Akaya! Free labour.” said Yukimura, with a wide grin. 

Sanada couldn’t stop the smirk that touched his face at that. Yanagi didn’t bother and covered his laugh with his sleeve. 

“Though...I can’t blame him. Imagine being stuck in this place when it’s dark out. The area around here is completely deserted as well.” Yanagi brushed a stray hair out of his face and tilted his head sideways.

“Nobody can hear you scream in this house...” said Yukimura, in a voice that sounded exactly like Darth Vader. 

“Don’t say that!” Sanada snapped. 

“Why? You afraid, _Gen-chan_?” asked Yukimura, as he turned around and did the thing where his eyes rolled back into his head completely. The first time that Yukimura had done that after the surgery, Sanada could have sworn his heart had beat so fast that it had gone out of his chest. His fury upon discovering it was just a joke had been so potent that he hadn’t talked to Yukimura for four whole days. 

“Not of ghosts.” scoffed Sanada. Who was scared of ghosts? Nobody. (Apart from Akaya, but Akaya still believed in Santa.) “But of this place collapsing around you in the dark with no-one to help you, while you’re trapped under the wreckage of the house, paralysed? Yes, that terrifies me.” 

Yukimura quieted, instantly. “Right.” he said, as he stood up and picked up the tripod. “I can see why.”

He set up the next photo in silence and Sanada shifted a little. He knew what Yukimura was thinking of and he almost wished that he hadn’t brought the topic up. It was easier to have Yukimura being teasing and inappropriate than to have a saddened and quiet Yukimura. 

He was about to apologize when he heard a high-pitched laugh behind him. It sounded eerie, and vaguely evil, like nothing else he’d heard before.

“What was that?” Yanagi asked, as he looked around.

Yukimura’s eyes widened. “You heard it too?”

Sanada nodded, as he looked over his shoulder, scanning the dark corners of the house. “Me as well. It was...awful laughter. Like they were about to gut you alive.” 

Nobody was scared of ghosts. Now, _spirits_ which actually existed was another matter. Especially spirits that sounded like they wanted to gut people alive. 

“There’s nobody else here.” said Yukimura, obviously forcing himself to breathe slower, as he laughed, shakily. “It was the wind rushing past a screen door. We’re just imagining things.” 

“But...as you previously stated, it’s the perfect haunted house.” said Sanada, pulling his hat off to run a hand through his hair, his eyes not leaving the rotten wood plunged in darkness. “And we’re here now it’s turning dark, out in the middle of nowhere.” 

“This isn’t a story, Genichirou.” said Yanagi firmly, as he buttoned his coat a little tighter. “We’ll be fine.” 

Yukimura smiled and picking up his tripod again. “Bathroom. Lead the way, Genichirou. Before the light fades, or I’ll not be able to take any more pictures, I forgot my flash.” 

Sanada nodded and lead the way, glancing around him nervously, looking for the slightest hint of something that wasn’t there. Were there spirit wards in this house? If there had ever been spirit wards here, they must have faded a long time ago; wards needed human presence or constant upkeep to endure. 

But his friends seemed completely immune to Sanada’s worries. Yukimura knelt and took the photo quickly, adjusting the lense and focus, deftly. “You know, I’d be so lost with all these buttons if it weren’t for Fuji-kun.” said Yukimura, cheerfully. “He taught me how to do all of this.”

“Really?” asked Yanagi, with a look of surprise. “I thought you learnt it in art.”

“The class learned it, but I was in the hospital.” said Yukimura, with a laugh. “And none of the rest of you take Art, so I mentioned it to Fuji when I saw him in Tokyo the other day and he walked me through it.” 

“Are you sure he taught you the correct procedure?” asked Sanada skeptically, pushing his fear aside, with one last look over his shoulder at the darkened rooms. “I mean, it is Fuji. Tezuka constantly has unprecedented shudders when we do homework together and his sole explanation is always Fuji.” 

Yukimura giggled, lightly. “He really does that? I thought Fuji was exaggerating!” But he grinned as he straightened. “I thought he might be, so I developed a few photos after he showed me, and they were amazing.”

Sanada nodded. If the tricks did work after all, he didn’t mind. “As long as we’re clear on that.” 

Yanagi snorted, lightly. “Clear.” At Sanada’s quizzical look, he elaborated. “...because they aren’t blurry...?”

“That was a stretch.” said Yukimura, as he followed Sanada to the first bedroom.

“But it did work.” said Yanagi, with a smirk. “It’s a work in progress yet. I’m still developing it.” 

Yukimura laughed at that one and Sanada let out a long suffering sigh. Why did he have such irritating friends?

“Don’t be such a negative, Genichirou! We have to expose you to more of this humour or else you’ll never flash!” said Yukimura, barely containing giggles.

“Oh, stop it.” he grumbled, goodnaturedly. “Do you want me to drop your tripod, Seiichi?”

“They’re your pictures.” reminded Yukimura, with a sparkle to his eye.

“But it’s your camera.” said Yanagi, easily. “So we’ll stop for the sake of your parent’s money.” 

Yukimura adjusted the camera with a dry laugh and he knelt down to take the picture again. “It’s not like they would care if I broke it. They just chuck their money at me and Minoru to make up for the fact that they’re always working.” 

“You’re lucky.” said Yanagi, with a mildly irked sigh. “Mine can barely deal with tennis and tuition funds.”

Sanada felt a little awkward. He never knew what to say when his friends complained about their parents. His brother was...abnormal in many ways and Sasuke was always a pain in the neck, but other than that, he’d had a near-perfect home-life. But he was saved from saying anything as a howling screech came from behind them,

He shuddered and looked at Yanagi, whose lips had made a perfect o, but seemed to be trying to convince himself it was something else. “The winds didn’t make that, Renji.” 

“The more you say it, the more you’ll believe it. The winds get more powerful, out in the middle of nowhere without buildings to cushion them, so they sound like monsters.” said Yanagi, firmly, as if to make himself believe it. “Let’s just do this quickly and go get some coffee. With whipped cream.”

“I’ll even pay for once, Genichirou. Won’t it be great?” said Yukimura, with a laugh, as he stepped a little closer to Sanada, handing him the tripod. “Back garden shot and then we can go back, right?”

Sanada nodded. “Yes, then we can leave.” And the quicker that happened, the better. Sanada felt all too uneasy about this place. 

They walked out to the back-garden still shivering. Being inside or outside the rotting hulk of a house didn’t really make a difference. The grass in the backgarden was long and overgrown, and wove itself into such a thick green that Sanada couldn’t see through the grass, something that unnerved him a little. There were insects and probably snakes inside the grass, so Sanada kept his hand on Yukimura’s shoulder and the other around Yanagi’s elbow.

“Relax, would you?” asked Yukimura, with an annoyed look. “I was joking about the haunted house thing. I’m not going to break.”

“I’m not worried about that. I’m worried about snakes that could be waiting to attack.” said Sanada firmly, as he looked around the entire undergrowth. The brick wall that had once marked the territory of the house, had been partially toppled from the roots of a tree and the desolate remnants of brick and wood looked eerie. If he was silent enough, he could hear the wind whistling through the trees restlessly, creating a sound like a constant stream of whispered words. Or was it _just_ the trees?

....okay, so he was a little worried about what was making those noises, but even if it was a spirit, what could he do about it? Wave the tripod at it? It was dead. He couldn’t do much. Not without salt. 

“There’s only a 26% chance of there being snakes. You can relax, Genichirou.” said Yanagi, with an amused glanced as he slowly removed his elbow from Sanada’s grip. 

Yukimura crouched down by the camera and started the exposure, much to Sanada’s discomfiture. The hairs on the back of his neck were on end and his heart was beating just a little too fast in his chest. “You know, Akaya was complaining about us not stepping down for him. I don’t want to stop playing tennis yet, but do you think I should hand over leadership, so he’ll have more time to experience it, like Seigaku’s Kaidoh and Hyotei’s Hiyoshi?” 

“I don’t think we should completely abdicate and even if we tried, it wouldn’t happen.” said Sanada, with an amused grin, trying to fight off the sense of not-right that pervaded the overgrown garden. “He would still call you buchou.” 

Yanagi nodded, as he adjusted his hat. “That’s correct, Seiichi. I would suggest that you stay until the winter break, and then let Akaya start trying to be a leader.”

The blue-haired boy nodded and stood up. “There do–”

His voice was cut off as he shuddered and took a few steps back, almost knocking Sanada down. He clutched his chest and breathed hard, his eyes wide. Sanada gripped his shoulders tightly and Yanagi almost teleported to Yukimura’s side. “Seiichi...” Yanagi breathed.

“Fine, fine.” said Yukimura, clutching onto both Yanagi and Sanada for support as he pulled himself a little more upright. “Something cold just....” he trailed off and frowned into the undergrowth. “Call me stupid, but it felt like somebody just walked over my grave. But it was just a breeze....”

“You took the photo, right?” said Sanada and at Yukimura’s nod, he hoisted the tripod over his shoulder effortlessly. “Renji, help Seiichi if he needs it. We are getting out of here, now.” His senses of danger were flickering like mad and he knew that his brother would have yelled at him, long before this point. 

Yanagi nodded skeptically, but the three of them swiftly marched out of the deserted house, ignoring the plumes of dust that emerged around them from their firm steps through the thick coating of dust on the floor. As they turned down the road, Sanada looked back for a moment. “Good riddance.” he muttered, but he froze a little and sped up, upon seeing something inside the house moving.

“It’s getting dark, we might have to run for it.” said Sanada grimly, as he turned to his two friends.

“It’s fine, it’s only five-thirty.” said Yukimura, looking relaxed and calm again, away from the shadow of the ruined house. “Coffee then takoyaki at your house, Renji?” he asked, cheerfully. “Bloody hell, my hands are freezing!”

Sanada didn’t really want to drop the topic of running, but both Yanagi and Yukimura looked content to pretend they hadn’t visited the house. “Okay, it sounds good.” said Sanada, with a stern look. “And you should have brought gloves!”

“I needed to take pictures without them.” defended Yukimura, as he scrunched up his nose, upon pulling away the handkerchief from his face.

“Yes, but you could have worn them after and before taking the pictures.” pointed out Yanagi, with an amused smirk, as he adjusted Yukimura’s scarf for him in lieu of the handkerchief. 

“Oh hush!” said Yukimura, with an embarrassed grin, as he tucked his hands into his pockets. 

“About the pictures, when can I give them to grandfather?” asked Sanada, curiously, trying to match the casualness of his friends, despite his heartbeat still trying to outrun a mouse and the vague lingering scent of the musty house in the air. 

“Maybe....three days, I think. Three days is the fastest I can develop all of them around tennis and schoolwork.” said Yukimura, with a grin. “Good thing today’s Sunday, huh?”

“Did you do your maths homework like you said you would on Friday?” asked Yanagi and Yukimura groaned in remembrance. 

“Scratch that, make that four days, Genichirou.”

Sanada shook his head, with amusement, as they crunched their way through the piles of dead leaves that scattered the country road. “Tarundoru, Seiichi.” 

“Don’t you tarundoru me!” said Yukimura, thwapping Sanada’s arm, with mock irritation. 

“When you are being irresponsible, I can always tarundoru you!” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“Oh really now?” asked Yukimura, a glint in his eyes that only spelled trouble. Sanada gulped, held the tripod tighter and started to sprint off into the distance to avoid any sort of retribution. 

“Help me get him, Renji!” yelled Yukimura, and Sanada’s gait only increased. Thank god he did extra laps every day. Still, the combined power of Yukimura and Renji, tackled him to the ground eventually, until they were panting with laughter and holding each other down against the crackling leaves. 

Life was good.


	2. Relapse

It was a weekday night and Sanada had finished his homework, but that was hardly any reason to slack off. There were still other types of training to do and Sanada had just finished his muscle-training and was starting on his mental training, when a sound disturbed his focus. He dropped one of the beans he was exchanging from bowl to bowl, with a frown. His phone was ringing with Yukimura’s ringtone and maybe he was imagining it, but it almost seemed more frantic than usual. In any case, Yukimura usually texted him, preferring to type than talk, so this was odd.

Sanada flipped open the phone. “Hello. This is Sanada speaking.” he answered, as he always did. 

“Genichirou....” said Yukimura’s voice and it sounded somewhat fainter than it usually did. “I finished developing the photos today.”

“That’s good.” said Sanada, with a faint smile to his face, as he increased the volume a little, to hear Yukimura's voice better. “Shall I obtain them from you tomorrow morning before practise?”

“Um....” There was a pause on Yukimura’s side, and nothing to hear except light breath against the receiver. “I think you need to come over and see them, Genichirou.” he said finally, his voice firm.

Sanada paused and glanced out of the window. It was already getting dark and his mother would get worried if he left the house now. “It’s late, Seiichi. Can’t it wait?”

“Nope.” said Yukimura, immediately, his voice somewhat impatient....and nervous. “It really can’t. I’ve already sent a text to Renji. Can you run here, please?”

Sanada blinked and grunted his affirmation, then stared at his flip-phone with a little confusion, as Yukimura hung up on him without even a goodbye. Yukimura really did seem extraordinarily different to his usual comportment. This had to be an emergency. But what did it have to do with the photos...? He felt uneasy about the whole affair with the house and he was definitely worrying now. He pocketed his phone, his wallet and his keys, before calling out to his mother that he’d be home later. 

He jogged through the Kanagawa night, nodding to a few people he knew as he went, until he’d ran the five miles to Yukimura’s house in record time. He knocked on the door as he caught his breath, and Yukimura’s younger sister, Minoru, opened the door. 

“Sanada-nii-san.” she said, formally, as he tugged at one of her pigtails, petulantly, “Can you do something about Seiichi? He’s been acting really weird.” she asked, conspiratorially. “I asked him to fix my camera today then he started screaming.” 

Sanada’s eyebrows went up. “I’ll try, Minoru-chan.” He glanced up, as a few goosebumps erupted on his skin. How odd. The house felt colder today. That wasn’t like his cold-hating best friend. Wasn’t his house usually heated to the point of discomfort? Sanada bounded up the stairs, two at a time and knocked on Yukimura’s door. Before he had finished, the door was yanked open and Yukimura pulled him in. 

Yanagi was already sitting at Yukimura’s kotatsu, having evidently moved away the stack of tennis magazines that were spilling away from Yukimura’s bookcases to underneath Yukimura’s bed. Usually, you couldn't even see the floor of Yukimura's room, without duress.

“Now Genichirou’s here, I can explain.” said Yukimura, as he took a seat on the floor, sticking his feet underneath the kotatsu's blanket, with a slightly relieved sigh. He pulled out a small sheaf of photos from under his bed, and placed them face-down on the table. “I developed them earlier today.” he explained. 

“So...?” asked Sanada, as he assumed seiza as he took a seat next to Yanagi and opposite from Yukimura. He liked kotatsus and all, but he was still sweating from his run, and he didn't want to overheat.

“Okay, so the first picture starts out okay.” said Yukimura, flipping over the first picture and sliding it over to Yanagi. Yanagi picked it up and showed it to Sanada. It looked normal. The house was sharp and clear in its dilapidated glory, looking so much better than even Yanagi’s photos. 

“This is amazing quality, Seiichi.” said Sanada, in awe, as he took it from Yanagi’s hands. 

“Yes, yes, it’s a 30 second exposure, of course it will be.” said Yukimura impatiently. “That’s not the point. Look at the third window from the right.” 

Sanada’s gaze fell there. There was an imperfection in the glass....that looked vaguely human. Like a face. “I see it.” Sanada said, grimly.

“It’s just a glass refraction revealing an impurity, Seiichi.” said Yanagi, with a frown as he brought the picture closer to his face. “It’s nothing big.”

“Sure, that was what I thought. I didn’t even realize that it was there, the first time round I looked through the pictures.” said Yukimura, with a small nod, before he flipped over the next picture of the living room. The quality wasn’t nearly as good, considering that there was a large blur in the corner of the picture.

“This is the second weird part.” said Yukimura, as he pointed at the blur. “I’ve _never_ once screwed up a picture with my hands when I’m not ill, so it’s literally impossible to screw up a picture when you use a tripod! Yet this happens?” he said, with a frown. “It struck me as odd.”

“We were laughing quite hard.” said Yanagi, logically, but Yukimura just shook his head. “Not at that point, Renji. That was afterwards.”

“It could just be a paper thing. Or maybe you didn’t develop it correctly.” suggested Yanagi, again, as Sanada picked up the picture. The blur looked like blue, see-through cloth.....which none of the three of them had been wearing that day, because it had been freezing. Who wore silk on a cold autumn’s day?

“No,” said Yukimura, with a sigh. “The blur was in the negative as well. And it’s not our clothing either, because I was the only one wearing blue that day, and I’m behind the camera, it can’t have got me in the shot.” 

Sanada gulped and glanced back down at the picture in his hands. “It’s transparent fabric too. Your coat was blue and very much opaque, or you’d have frozen.” he said, as he placed the photo down. 

Yukimura smiled weakly and held out the third picture of the kitchen. Sanada inhaled sharply. No. No. No. This was bad. This was very bad. In the corner of the kitchen, in unmistakable clarity was a young woman wearing a deep navy kimono, with transparent drapings over her elbows. She had long hair that covered her face and she faced the camera directly. 

There was no explaining that away. Yanagi physically moved back from the table, staring at the picture in horror. “But there wasn’t anyone there except the three of us.” he said, his voice extraordinarily high-pitched. “No one!”

Yukimura just nodded. “She’s there in every picture. She’s even posing in one of the bedroom shots. But she gets closer with every picture.” He flipped over the pictures with rapidity, and everywhere, the girl in the kimono advanced upon the camera. 

Yukimura paused before he flipped over the last picture. “This was in the garden.” he said, as he flipped it over. Sanada recoiled and Yanagi’s hands went to his mouth. There was no garden to be seen, just a face. And the woman’s face was horribly disfigured with slash marks and what looked like burns, but the most terrifying thing about the picture, was the grin filled with malice. 

“So there’s a ghost at your grandfather's house?” asked Yanagi, finally, looking at Sanada in desperation. Sanada knew that Yanagi wanted him to deny it, but Sanada just nodded, grimly. “Nobody died in that house recently. But samurais attract death like flies. Even the house in Shikoku has spirit wards everywhere to prevent things like this.”

“It’s not at the house anymore.” said Yukimura, tersely, his hands shaking as he pulled out another photo-paper from his bedside table. “Minoru asked me to fix her camera, so I was tinkering and then cleaned out the film. Then I took a couple of pictures of Minoru to test it. So I developed those pictures.”

He flipped the picture over and Sanada felt the urge to throw up. The woman’s hands were curled around Minoru’s shoulders and her disfigured face grinned at the camera. Minoru, throwing out a confident pose, didn’t seem to notice her at all. 

The ghost had followed them home. 

“I took that picture three hours ago.” said Yukimura, as he looked down at his hands. “What the fuck do I do?”

There was silence as the three of them just glanced at each other. Yanagi was utterly speechless, Yukimura was shaking and trying his hardest to contain it, and finally, Sanada growled. He knew the most about this situation, between the three of them. It was a weird sensation, but one he’d have to accept. “We get out. Now.” said Sanada, standing up, decisively. “My house. You two are staying over. Remember that feeling you got in the garden, Seiichi? That must have been her, latching onto you.” 

Yukimura blinked, looking just a little shocked and Yanagi frowned. “I haven’t got anything...” he said.

“I can lend you things, Renji, you’re my height. Seiichi, pack your stuff, quickly.” said Sanada sternly, as he started yanking drawers open. 

They both looked at Sanada, with a mixture of shock and confusion. “What?” he demanded. “You have a malicious spirit on your tail, Seiichi. My house is spirit-warded like all old houses. And unless you’d like to go and camp out at Fuji or Tezuka’s houses instead...” he said, trailing off.

Yanagi stared at him. “Genichirou–” He broke off and stared again. “You can’t...” he trailed off.

“Renji, it’s right there.” said Sanada, pointing at the picture, as Yukimura opened his bag and started dumping clothes and overnight stay accessories. “You can’t deny something that’s right there. And Seiichi isn’t pranking us with this.” 

Yukimura shook his head. “I wouldn’t dare, Renji.” 

Yanagi sighed. “Fine. Let’s go.” he said, as he started helping Yukimura dump clothes into the bag. Usually, they folded things, and an internal part of Sanada felt conflicted upon thinking of the wrinkles to result from their hurried packing. But, as he felt a slight shiver run through his shoulder at the thought of the wretched face, he concluded that they really didn’t have time to waste. The lady hadn’t attacked yet, but he wasn’t waiting for her to decide to attack. 

“My sister...” muttered Yukimura, “And my parents, what happens to them?”

“They’re not the ones she wants.” said Sanada grimly. “The dead rarely take interest in the living unless they want to use them or they were part of their previous life.” he said, remembering hazy summer afternoons spent with his brother telling him things that his mother had deemed as nonsense. 

Yukimura looked uneasy, but nodded, tossing a look around him room for the last items he wanted. 

The moment that Yukimura started zipping up the bag, Sanada grabbed it and started stalking down the stairs, taking them two at a time. Out of here, away from the unnatural chill, away from the laughter that was sure to come.

He felt far better when he was out in the natural chill of the Kanagawa evening. Renji easily caught up with his stride and Yukimura just started jogging, not even bothering to try and walk, after shouting his goodbyes to his confused parents. “This isn’t the first time you’ve seen something like this.” said Yukimura, firmly, his eyes alight with curiosity. “You mentioned Fuji...”

Sanada just nodded in confirmation. “His sister. She’s a paranormal investigator, in her spare time. It’s pretty lucrative, especially when you’re as good as she is.” he explained. “She reads tarot cards. And her readings are always accurate.”

“So she predicted this?” asked Yanagi, looking increasingly more uncomfortable, as he got new data. 

“No.” said Sanada, as he adjusted Yukimura’s bags over his shoulder. “But she predicted my brother’s wife’s death. To the last detail.”

There was a stoic silence among all of them, as they continued to walk. “So what?” asked Yukimura.

“Nii-sama works with Fuji-san now. They exorcise spirits from old houses. No one talks about it. It’s embarrassing and my mother still doesn’t believe it.” said Sanada finally. “And if grandfather’s comments mean anything, they’re also dating, which is too weird to even think about.”

Yukimura laughed, tossing his head back as he laughed. “You and Fuji would be half-brothers then.” he said, with altogether too much glee in his voice. 

“Imagine Tezuka’s reaction.” said Yanagi dryly and Sanada just groaned. 

It was easy to pull away from the topic of the spirit and just pretend that this was just a normal impromptu sleepover. But Sanada couldn’t allow himself to do that. “So yes, that’s how I know.” he said, finally. “Not as well as my brother and Fuji-san do, but enough.” 

Yukimura smiled, with a little relief. “Well, the problem’s easily solved. You said they exorcise ghosts from houses. So they can get rid of this one.”

Sanada shook his head. He didn’t want to disturb them for something this minor. Besides, he was able to take care of it. “Not so easily.” he said, a little nervously. “The weaker spirits stay at the house where they died. She followed you home and latched onto you, Seiichi, which means she’s a lot tougher and a lot more difficult to send back to Yomi. She’s probably still following us now.” 

Yukimura paled and glanced behind him, his gait slowing a little on the old, cracked pavement. “Wha–Then what was the point of leaving my house?” he demanded angrily, his blue-black hair shaking around his face. 

“Spirit wards.” said Yanagi, before Sanada could answer. “Is what you were going to say.” he said, his eyebrows high. “But those are supposed to just be useless. Things sold just to get people paranoid.” 

Sanada shrugged. “Some are, some aren’t. You have to get the right ones. And you know, nii-sama and to an extent, grandfather know everybody in this field.” he said, seriously. “My house is safe. She can’t get in. But you can’t hide there forever.” 

Yukimura frowned, his pointed face clearly displeased by this news. “There’s no way to fight her?” Sanada knew what he felt. Running away from a problem had never been any of their ways. They confronted their problems, either head-on or sideways, but they’d never avoided them or ran away. 

“I don’t know.” said Sanada, with a shrug, as he tugged his hat down. “I never really believed in this stuff. Nii-sama didn’t like talking about it at home, because he didn’t want Sasuke to think he was insane.” Sasuke could already see spirits at the age of six, he didn't need to have his father discussing them with him casually, as if normal people saw them. 

Yanagi just looked overwhelmed. “Does your grandfather have any books about this in your library?” he asked. “Or your brother?”

“Grandfather might.” mused Sanada. “But probably not nii-sama. He says that he doesn’t need to write this down, because if you forget, it’s your life on the line and that’s more than enough inspiration to memorize it all.”

Yukimura snorted, as he adjusted his jacket. “He really does have your temperament. for all of your dislike for him.”

Sanada glared, as they arrived at his house. “I’m not a lazy slacker.” was his only response, as he pushed open his door. “Tadaima!” he called.

His mother bustled to the door, looking somewhat irritated at his late arrival, until she saw Yukimura and Yanagi. Then her visage widened into a smile. Sanada had always known that his mother had liked his friends a lot and almost wanted them as sons as well. “What’s going on?” she asked, pleasantly.

“Can we stay around for the night, Sanada-kaa-san?” asked Yukimura, turning on the charm as he smiled disarmingly and clasped his hands in front of his chest. “We had some important ranking tournaments to plan for next year and we wanted to try and finish them tonight.”

Yanagi added his most charming smile and Sanada just acted normal. His mother would definitely know something was up if he started smiling too. She just shook her head, with fond amusement. “Honestly, you kids. So indecisive. Have you called your parents and told them?”

Yanagi shook his head. “But we’ll be calling them now. Thank you so much, Sanada-san.” he said, bowing his head again, using very formal language. Sanada watched his mother melt and forgive them, sending them away with a wave of her wooden spoon. Yukimura looked out of his peripheral vision, around the old wooden house, with paper-thin walls. Sanada knew what he was thinking about the structural integrity of the house and he placed a comforting hand on Yukimura’s shoulder. “The wards are really strong here. This is a pretty old house, even if it's not Sengoku period like the other one.”

“So where’s your brother?” asked Yukimura, as they placed his bag inside Sanada’s fairly sparse room. Sasuke was probably already asleep, judging by how quiet the house was. Only the howling wind outside made any noise inside his house.

“He’s not here. He and Fuji-san are in Egypt.” said Sanada, with a helpless sigh. He could call them...but he didn’t want to. He didn’t need to deal with his brother's annoying voice. He could do this much without his brother. He didn’t want to ask help. “For another four days.”

“Four days?” asked Yanagi, his eyebrows going up. “Genichirou, Seiichi can’t stay here for that long.”

“Hopefully, he won’t need to.” Sanada said, pulling a face as he steered them out of his room towards the library, opposite from his room. It was also his grandfather’s study, but at this time, his grandfather would be teaching at the dojo. “She shouldn’t be able to attack at school. You’d be surprised, but Rikkaidai has weak wards too. And after school, if we go to the right temple, we should be able to get actual wards for Seiichi’s house.”

Yukimura leant against a bookcase, with a deep frown set over his features, as he watched Sanada search through the musty bookcases for the brown and gold covered book. “...how much have you dealt with spirits before anyway, Genichirou?”

Sanada looked away from Yukimura’s gaze as his hand failed to close over the book he wanted. “Sasuke got possessed once. It was how nii-sama's wife died.” he said, quietly. “That was the thing that persuaded nii-sama to join Fuji-san, since he was able to shove the spirit out of Sasuke and save him too. It was...” he trailed off as he remembered the inhumane cackling from his nephew and the green goo that had leaked from the kid’s ears and eyes, almost a year ago. He was fairly sure that if either of his parents had seen what he’d seen, they would believe in his older brother. 

“It works?” asked Yanagi, for once, not pressing for information. “The exorcism?”

“It looked painful. But yes, it works.” said Sanada as he pulled down the book, still unwilling to meet either of his friend’s gazes. It felt strange and alien to talk about this with them, when his own family tensed up at conversation about it at the dinner table, and he'd only ever talked about it with his brother when they were away from the house. He opened the heavy book and coughed a little at the small tendrils of dust that emerged from the book.

“This may not be very up-to-date...” said Yanagi over Sanada’s shoulder, as he flicked to the index. Sanada found the words ‘spirit wards’ and turned to the second page.

“Temples that are reliable rarely change, even over time.” said Sanada, as he glanced at the long list of temples from all over Japan. He carried the book over to his grandfather’s desk and grabbed a pen and some paper. Yukimura took them from him and Sanada and Yanagi started poring down the list for familiar temple names. 

“And if it doesn’t work?” asked Yukimura quietly, as they finished their task, ending up with about eight temples. 

What did he say to that? He really didn’t know. Anything could happen. “We’ll find something to work.” said Sanada after a too long pause, unwilling to admit any sort of defeat, but his pause was probably answer enough. “What are you boys doing here in the dark, hmm?” asked his grandfather jovially, pausing at their solemn expressions. His own expression darkened as he noticed the book that Sanada had just shut. 

“Genichirou.” he said, sternly and Sanada didn’t answer for a minute, as he put the book away and gathered his thoughts. Yanagi placed a hand at Sanada’s elbow and Yukimura stepped up to his side. 

“There was a spirit at great-aunt’s house.” he said, finally. “And it followed Seiichi home.” he said, quietly. “But we can deal with it, grandfather. We’re going to order wards and then Seiichi should be okay until nii-sama comes back.”

His grandfather strode forward and took the paper from Sanada’s hand. He circled one of the temples with a nod. “This is where I take replacement wards for our house. Seiichi-kun should be alright.” But his face spoke depths about how unlikely that was. 

Sanada just swallowed, nervously, trying to hide his apprehension from Yanagi, who was already pulling books out of the shelf to read about spirituality and Yukimura who was worrying at his lip, with a determined look in his eyes. A spirit following someone was very unheard of. It scared him, more than he could really express eloquently. 

(X)

School was difficult. Yukimura was more jumpy than usual in class and Sanada had almost slapped his home-room teacher for startling him in the washitsu. At lunchtime, while waiting in the lunchline with Yanagi, Yanagi confided that he had actually thrown salt at Niou when the trickster had surprised him in their math class (where exactly it was that Yanagi was storing the salt on his person, Sanada hadn't asked and wasn’t sure he wanted to know).

But still, all of them felt a lot better after making other people run a lot of laps and playing a hard coordination game that eliminated the entire team in one fell swoop, an act that led to more laps. Yukimura had then taken even more pleasure in assigning Niou more laps for petting the stray cat that was usually hanging out the Rikkai campus. There had been mutters of resentment from the tennis club, but no one had dared to speak out against the bad mood of the Big Three. 

It was a relief when they finally left the school and started walking towards the temple, scarcely avoiding reckless bikers and speeding cars. Yukimura’s eyes were narrowed as they drew closer to the place and there was a slightly tense silence between the three of them as they stopped at the entrance of the temple. 

“It’s going to work out.” said Sanada, finally, unable to bear the tension. “Spirit wards are supposed work on faith as much as they work on human presence. You have to believe that they’ll work, Seiichi. And if all else fails, we can throw soybeans at her, like during Setsubun.”

Yanagi snorted softly, burying a laugh into his cuff and Yukimura grinned a little. “I think I like the second plan better. It would be good precision practise as well, if we aimed it with our racquets.” he said, as they took off their shoes at the entrance, and neatly lined them up against the shoes of other visitors inside the temple. 

“The beans would go through the racket holes, it wouldn’t be very practical.” said Yanagi, as he walked towards the shrine and bowed his head. Sanada and Yukimura followed suit and Sanada prayed softly, with an extra, more informal prayer to the gods that this would not end with all of them dead and eaten by vengeful spirits. 

He could only hope for things to work out. He turned away from the shrine and found a monk, who was cleaning one of the walls of the shrine. “Excuse me,” said Sanada with a low bow. “I was wondering whether I could purchase a spirit ward.”

The monk turned to him, with a slightly confused look and Sanada wondered whether he had come to the wrong temple. “You are not plagued by spirits.” said the monk, quietly, his eyes scanning over Sanada's form. 

“No, it’s not for me.” said Sanada, as he turned back to where Yanagi and Yukimura were still standing by the shrine, heads still bowed. The man’s eyes cleared up and he nodded. “I can see it. Your friend has ties to the dead. Very well, I’ll give them to you.”

Sanada nodded, gratefully. “Thank you.” he said, “How much do I owe you?”

“Protection from the evil spirits is free.” said the man, with a cryptic smile, as he handed Sanada three stones and the red strings with scraps of paper tied inside them.Then he placed a small folded paper on top of Sanada’s hands. “Stay safe, young man.” he said, patting Sanada’s hand and leaving. 

Sanada nodded and bowed again, before quickly departing, to reach Yukimura and Yanagi again. “Come on, let’s go.” he said, as he wound the thread around the rocks, absently. “Renji, will you take the paper? Those are the prayers we have to read while burying these in Yukimura’s front garden.” he asked, as he balanced the rocks and his schoolbags. 

Yukimura looked at the rocks with a skeptical eye. “They don’t look like much.” he said, as they made the walk back to Yukimura’s house.

“That’s the point, wards are supposed to be inconspicuous.” said Yanagi, quietly. “This isn’t like with thieves where you advertise that you have a security system to scare them. With spirits, you want them to be unaware of the spirit ward’s location, so they can’t destroy it.”

Sanada tossed Yanagi an even look. “Have you been reading up on them?” he asked. He'd seen Yanagi scan through some books yesterday, but that was thorough knowledge. 

Yanagi smiled unapologetically and thinly, as his hands clutched over his tennis bag. “I took a few books from your library home. Knowledge is power and I refuse to be powerless in this situation.”

Yukimura tucked his hands into his pockets. “It’s just surreal.” he muttered, darkly. “...you know, I dreamed of kami when they drugged me for the surgery. Spirits drifting in and out of my mind, wishing me luck and hate and different sentiments. But that’s all it’s supposed to be, you know? Dreams and stories, things you see when you’re about to die. Not when you have a whole life ahead.”

Sanada scoffed, softly. “I wish they were that intangible.” he said, almost inaudibly. Maybe then, Sasuke would actually have a father that was at home more than twice a month. He scowled a little, and almost kicked a stone in his path. “This is tarundoru. These spirits are disrupting our time. We have so much entrance exam studying to do and we’re doing this instead.”

Yanagi laughed, weakly, his eyes crinkling slightly. “Genichirou, exams aren’t until February. It’s a little early, even for us.” The wind zipped past them and maybe it was Sanada’s imagination, but he felt colder as they approached Yukimura’s house. 

“You can’t seriously be blaming the spirits for taking you from studying?” said Yukimura, with a slightly incredulous look, as he elbowed Sanada in the side. “Honestly, Genichirou.” he said, almost fondly. 

“Seiichi, we need a shovel and some salt from inside to make this work.” explained Sanada, ignoring them, as they drew closer to Yukimura’s house. “Give Renji your keys so he can get the salt. We can get the shovel.” he said, as he looked up at the house apprehensively. Yukimura, for once, didn’t protest and just tossed his house-keys to Yanagi, before shivering lightly as they stepped onto the grass and pushed past the latch to get into Yukimura’s garden. 

“I got new roses, do you see?” pointed out Yukimura as he unlocked the garden shed and pulled out a medium-sized shovel from the large assortment of garden tools inside. 

“They’re nice.” said Sanada, automatically, without looking, as a shiver ran down his spine, upon removing his schoolbag from his back and dropping it on the floor of the shed, along with Yukimura’s. He didn’t understand how Yanagi and Yukimura’s minds shot between such different topics all the time. Sanada could only really think of the spirits and their effects on his life, such as the cold breeze that was too sudden to be natural. Yukimura rubbed his arms, absently and Sanada's brow furrowed as he glanced up towards the grey skies.

He instantly headed for the front of the house and started to dig out a patch of grass. Yukimura didn’t protest to the attack on his lawn, instead using a smaller trowel to make sure the soil didn’t just refill the hole again. Yanagi hauled out a small bag of salt and placed it next to the hole and watched Sanada shovel away the soil in silence. None of them felt much like speaking. 

Finally, the hole was big enough and Sanada dropped the three stones down inside the hole, with little ceremony. He just didn’t have time to place them down properly, especially as Yukimura was starting to shiver from an unnatural cold already. “Renji, will you read out the prayers?” he asked, as he picked up the salt. “Seiichi, you should start to trowel the soil back in...”

Yukimura tossed a look towards the bag of salt and looked like he was going to say something until Yanagi started saying the prayers, his voice even despite his concerned expression. Every time a verse ended, Sanada threw salt at the hole that Yukimura was slowly refilling. Could they finish this before anything happened?

Suddenly, Yukimura bent over double, coughing over the hole, as he dropped his trowel. Yanagi looked panicked but Sanada shook his head frantically as he moved his hands to tell Yanagi to keep reading. He gripped Yukimura’s shoulders and tried to pull him upright, but Yukimura was gagging and clawing at his throat, his eyes bugging out.

If Sanada squinted, he could almost see something blue and transparent around Yukimura and he dropped Yukimura to dump more and more salt on top of the wards, hastily brushing the dirt over the salt with his hands. Yanagi’s speed of reading had increased in response to Yukimura’s loud coughing and the prayer was almost done, almost done!

As soon as Yanagi said the final words and Sanada upended the entire bag of salt over the wards, Yukimura collapsed instantly, all of the fight gone out of him. Yanagi and Sanada both rushed to grab him and pull him upright. “Seiichi!” said Yanagi, sharply, as his fingers went to Yukimura’s pulsepoints.

Yukimura’s eyes weakly fluttered open and a lopsided smile appeared on his face. “That was a closer call than I ever want to happen again.” His voice was hoarse and the act of speaking led to a fit of phlegmy coughing, but his smile, as he stopped coughing, was wide.

Sanada tipped his head back, with a silent sigh. Done, done, he was done. This was done. Yanagi started laughing weakly and Sanada joined in, though his laughter was tinged with a little hysteria. “Next time...” Yanagi weakly said, through peals of laughter, “If your grandfather asks for a favour, tell him no from all of us, please?”

Yukimura silently laughed as Sanada vehemently nodded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Setsubun is the festival to harken the beginning of Spring, where they throw soybeans at family members wearing oni masks, in order to symbolize the explusion of demons from the house.


	3. Chapter 3

Sanada fought back a yawn as he unlocked the locker room and walked up to his locker to get changed. Back to routine, thankfully. Fifty laps by himself before everyone arrived and another thirty with everyone, and then they played a few round-robin games before starting class. It was nice to get here earlier. Even if it meant getting up a little earlier than 4am to get to school in time, it also meant that he could avoid Akaya’s questions about when he was getting captainship. 

The fact was, none of them really thought that Akaya could manage it just yet. He needed a serious turnaround in attitude towards his newer team-members of Rikkai, and since it didn’t seem to be coming from his daily interactions with them, Sanada was fairly certain they’d have to have a talk with Akaya about how he was supposed to treat his team, and, if he didn’t know better, he’d think that Yukimura was putting it off. 

Speaking of Yukimura, had his best friend just entered the locker room? He didn’t even seem to notice Sanada as he went straight to his locker. How strange. Not to mention, Yukimura was _never_ this early to school. On most days, he barely managed to arrive in time for morning practise. 

“Seiichi?” asked Sanada, as he walked up to Yukimura’s back. He blinked quickly, as almost instantly, Yukimura whirled around and pressed a large shard of metal to Sanada’s throat. Their eyes met for a moment, before Yukimura relaxed and closed his eyes momentarily, as if in relief. He looked exhausted, with large bags under his eyes and his uniform was already sweat-soaked, despite the day having only just started.

“Seiichi?” Sanada asked, again, as he placed a hand on Yukimura's shoulder. 

“It didn’t help. The wards didn’t help.” Yukimura said, lowly, as he pulled away from Sanada's touch and unlaced his shoes. 

“But we got rid of the spirit.” said Sanada, his brow furrowing as he crossed his arms over his chest. 

“Maybe her, but not all of them.” All of them? What was Yukimura talking about? 

Yukimura exhaled, shakily, looking quite tired, as he ran a hair through his hair, shakily. “I woke up this morning - early this morning, because I could hear screaming that no one else could. Min-chan thought I was nuts. And then I look outside and there are like three different people waiting outside the garden. One of them doesn’t have a fucking head.”

What? Sanada felt very confused. “Wha-”

“They’re dead. They were dead. I don’t...” Yukimura frowned as he crossed his arms across his chest, looking quite irritated. “So I searched it up on google, since you were probably on your way to school, and I got that iron and salt’s supposed to hurt spirits. I grabbed something out of dad’s toolbox, covered it in salt water then sort of shook it around at them. I got rid of most of them, then I sort of legged it to school. But hey, did you know that there are dead people _everywhere?_ ” he asked, his eyes wide and his expression distinctly displeased. 

That couldn’t be true. Only the restless dead stayed around and you could mostly detect the presence of the restless dead, because of violent incidents like demon lady. The normal dead went straight to Yomi. That was what all Shinto tradition said...not to mention his brother had said the same, hadn’t he?

“You don’t believe me.” said Yukimura, his lips pressed together, as he turned around, to yank off his shirt in one furious motion. “Fine. Be that way. I’ll sort it out my way, then.”

“Don’t believe what?” asked Yanagi, making both Yukimura and Sanada jump, and a shard of metal was shoved into Yanagi’s face as well. Yanagi’s eyes opened and he looked reasonably unimpressed by being threatened with a jagged piece of iron. “If the administrators see you with that, model student or not, they’ll send you home.”

Yukimura just dropped his arms to his sides, his face suddenly looking shut-off. “They won’t find out.” he said, his voice clipped, as he fished out his tennis shirt and pulled it over his head.

“Look, that can’t be true. Spirits don’t stay at earth if they’re at rest. And if they’re not at rest, they attack things. We could tell when demon lady was there, couldn’t we?” pointed out Sanada, with a frown. "It was colder, it felt weird, we could hear laughter.”

“And I could hear their screaming and they were there there, dripping their blood outside of my house, before I killed them with the iron.” retorted Yukimura, his voice fierce and his face stern. 

“Besides, you said yourself, Genichirou, that demon lady was more powerful than normal spirits. What makes you think that normal spirits can’t exist and be dead, but just not be powerful enough to attack?” asked Yanagi, with a pensive frown. “I was reading about it. It takes spirits a significant amount of energy to be able to interact with the material world. If they don’t have that energy, they wouldn’t be able to affect our world. It’s not so hard to imagine that there are plenty that hang around without needing to attack humans. What I want to know is why Seiichi can see them all of a sudden? He saw them before they attacked him. Even when demon lady attacked, we couldn’t see her.”

Sanada and Yukimura both started to speak at the same time, and Sanada let Yukimura speak first, pursing his lips together tightly. 

“I don’t know why. All I know is that they definitely tried to attack me when I left the boundary of my garden.” Yukimura’s face was slightly pale as he removed his belt and trousers, his hand not far from the large shard of metal.

“Well if you’d mentioned that...” muttered Sanada, scowling darkly. “That means the wards worked. The problem is these other ghost things coming near you.”

“Then the solution is...?” Yukimura demanded, his voice icy cold.

“I don’t know.” said Sanada, tightly. “Perhaps there is something attracting the spirits to your house. Let’s go there after practise, we can investigate.” He pulled a slight face. That was another day of studying and homework lost to this nonsense. 

“If they followed Seiichi here...?” asked Yanagi, his eyes darting between Sanada and Yukimura, who both seemed sullen and annoyed at each other.

“Don’t worry, that won’t be an issue.” said Sanada, as he lifted up his racket and balanced it on his shoulder, with a frown. “There are spirit wards in the school, remember? That’s one of the main reasons that my older brother even felt comfortable in helping me get into Rikkai. And as Seiichi experienced, they won’t attack you inside the wards. We’re fine.”

Yukimura looked quite put-out as he surreptitiously rubbed at his red eyes. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to be a bit more careful than that.” he said, irritably, as he adjusted his headband and tugged at his collar. With a displeased look at Sanada and Yanagi, he strode out towards the court.

Sanada bit on the edge of his bottom lip, smally, before sighed. “Renji, when in class, make sure he isn’t alone?” he asked, quietly and Yanagi just nodded in confirmation, as he finished buttoning his shirt and followed Yukimura out of the door. 

(X)

“You didn’t pack lunch today, either?” asked Yukimura, with a lighter laugh, as he and Yanagi peeked their heads into Sanada's classroom, as the lunch bell rang. He looked far more relaxed than he had in the morning, with the school blazer rolled up to his sleeves casually, and his sleepless eyes looked more like an aesthetic, than a consequence of not sleeping enough. Sanada felt a smile touch his lips, Yukimura was always at his best when he was happy. 

Yanagi shrugged, as Sanada left his bag in his classroom, only bringing his wallet to follow after his friends. “To be fair, I never pack lunch. Mother doesn’t trust my cooking after Sadaharu’s influence and my sister is too busy.”

“Well I can see why she doesn’t trust it. That Ginger Ale you served to everyone during the summer was made by you and him, wasn’t it?” asked Yukimura, with a slight laugh and a mischievous grin. 

Before Yanagi could answer, a small slight girl grabbed Yukimura’s arm, with an insistent force. “Yukimura-senpai, you need to check the flowers with me, remember? I told you, I keep seeing this white cat there and I think it’s eating your hyacinths!” she reminded, with a single-mindedness.

“Alright, alright, let’s go. I’ll meet you two on the roof!” said Yukimura, with a helpless smile, as he let himself be led away by the younger girl and they chattered together. Sanada felt a little nervous and there was a gut sensation that felt uneasy with letting Yukimura out of his and Yanagi’s sight. Still, the girl was with him. That had to count for something.

Yanagi just shook his head as they got into the line and he glanced back at their retreating backs. “I think he likes her. He doesn’t give anyone else his time of day.”

Sanada shrugged. “Maybe.” he said, with a noncommittal expression. He didn’t really like gossip about anyone, though Yanagi enjoyed it. “Either way, he’s not allowed to date until high school.”

With a slight chuckle, Yanagi turned back to the food, as he balanced the tray in one hand to fish out his money. “You’re right. Besides, he’s too obsessed with tennis to realize he likes her.” 

Sanada rolled his eyes, and paid for his food as well, as he and Yanagi moved away from the cafeteria lines. It was a nicer day, today, though still slightly chilly. The sea breeze filtered in through the open windows of the corridor, as he and Yanagi walked back towards the roof. “You’re ready for the maths test next class?” asked Yanagi, curiously. “I didn’t study.”

“I studied a little last night and this morning on the walk here.” said Sanada, feeling a little embarrassed to not seem put together. Still, they had both been otherwise preoccupied with spirits. “I don’t think it’s too difficult though. Just quadratic gra--”

He broke off as a bloodcurdling scream came from the direction of the roof. Sanada exchanged a horrified look with Yanagi, before they both sprinted for the roof, dropping their trays in the corridors, ignoring the shouts of the people walking behind them or even the people in the classrooms who stared at them with confused expressions.

As they hurtled up towards the stairs, at record speed, Yanagi directly collided with Yukimura’s girl-friend, who was crying uncontrollably and hyperventilating. Yanagi caught her, looking a little dazed, but Sanada didn’t slow as he took the stairs up to the roof three at a time, noticing Yukimura’s figure fall to his knees.

He ran up to catch his best friend’s shoulders, and supported Yukimura from falling back with his knees, and stilled in horror as his eyes fixed upon the scene that the rooftop garden painted. He’d seen blood before. Sometimes shinai broke and hit people on the arms or eyes, and Akaya’s crucifixion during the Nationals had been full of blood and the smell of rusted iron. And he’d seen Yukimura cough up blood before, in hospital, after reacting badly to some new medicine. But this was something else. 

Blood dripped from the centre of the rooftop garden, and there were guts and little parts of muscle and matted fur everywhere, as if some small animal had spontaneously exploded. The flowers closest to the animal and the door were covered in small beadlets of blood and little clumps of skin. And hoisted on top of one of Yukimura’s tomato stakes near the far end of the garden, was the head of the white cat that Niou liked to pet, stained with red, red blood. 

And then Sanada’s eyes caught the most shocking part of the scene. Daubed in blood, against the far wall of the rooftop garden, in archaic kanji, were the words “Free Me.”

He pressed a hand to his mouth to prevent his own retching and his own knees started to shake. The smell that rose from the sight was the most disgusting he’d ever smelt, like someone had thrown up and urinated and bled on the same spot. Except wasn’t that exactly what had happened with the poor cat’s insides?

Yukimura’s breath caught in his throat shakily, from the floor and Sanada slid down to Yukimura’s level, shakily, noticing how the blood had rolled down from the garden to coalesce in a puddle around Yukimura’s knees and sleeves. “Come on Seiichi, let’s go.” he said, hoarsely, his vocal cords rough and shaky, as if he’d forgotten how to speak. 

“ _You said that they couldn’t get in!_ ” screeched Yukimura, his eyes wide and furious. “You _promised_ that they couldn’t get in! You said that Rikkai was war--ARE WE NEXT THEN?!” he gripped Sanada’s shoulders and shook them, his eyes unable to stay on Sanada’s face as they slid back to the gruesome scene.

Yanagi jogged up the stairs behind them, and with him, came the deputy headmaster. The deputy headmaster choked softly, his eyes bugging out at the scene but Yanagi barely even paused as he reached forward and shut the door, firmly and with a click that seemed too loud in the aftermath of Yukimura’s cry. 

The four of them glanced at each other and the deputy headmaster adjusted his tie nervously. “Yes, thank you, Yanagi-kun. Now, someone else witnessed this?”

“Aira-chan, of class 2B.” said Yanagi, coolly, speaking up for Sanada and Yukimura, who were still gripping each other on the ground. “She’s in the hospital room with a friend, she looked like she was about to faint.”

The deputy headmaster nodded, faintly, and Yukimura, quickly realizing what was to come, straightened up, forcing his face to look more lively. He pulled Sanada with him and realizing what Yukimura was trying to avoid, Sanada made his mask of stoicness go up, even though it was the furthest from the truth at the moment. He felt shaken and disturbed, and most of all, scared, but the last thing he wanted was to be fussed over by the school nurse. 

“Would you like us to patrol here and make sure nobody gets in, sensei?” asked Yukimura, his voice somehow perfectly composed, as if he hadn’t been screaming at Sanada in fear and fury, just seconds before. 

With a slight shake of his head, the deputy headmaster laughed shakily. “No, no, we’ll send a teacher here. You can wait in my office. the police will want to speak with you three. Of course, you’re all excused from your next classes.” he said, with a nod.

“Thank you, sensei.” said Yanagi, grabbing the opportunity to leave instantly and started leaving. Sanada followed him and glanced back at Yukimura upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, who clattered down the stairs after them, after a slightly vulnerable glance down at his bloody trousers. 

“At least we won’t have to worry about that maths test.” said Yanagi, trying to lighten the atmosphere between Yukimura and Sanada as they strode down the corridors quickly, ignoring the curious glances of everyone, as they stared at Yukimura’s reddened sleeves and knees. It wasn’t working. 

As soon as they made it to the deputy-headmaster’s room, Sanada turned around to Yukimura. “I need your phone, Seiichi.” he said, calmly. Yukimura’s jaw tightened as he crossed his arms. 

“You were wrong.” he said, his voice clipped and angry.

“I know.” said Sanada, with a solemn look.

“Not technically.” said Yanagi, tiredly, as he leant back against the windowsill. “The roof and that part of the school were newer additions to the school. In the eighties, I believe. That means that it wouldn’t have the wards tied into the floor, like the rest of the other buildings do.” 

“It’s wrong _enough_ , Renji. I screwed up.” said Sanada, with a frown, refusing to excuse himself anymore. He’d let his pride rule for far too long. “And because of that, we let our guard down. And now it’s way out of our hands. I need that phone, Seiichi.”

“Use your own.” said Yukimura, as he leant back against the headmaster’s desk, looking severely displeased.

“I can’t, it doesn’t have the free international calls option.” said Sanada and Yanagi’s eyes widened as he understood what Sanada was doing. 

Yukimura’s eyes looked reluctant, but he tossed over his phone. Sanada caught it and flicked it open, to flick to the free way to call international numbers. He knew his brother’s phone number by heart, even though he couldn’t actually recall ever needing to use it. The dialtone went through and Sanada held it up on speakerphone, as Yanagi walked a little closer and placed a comforting hand on Sanada’s shoulder. 

“Yeeeah? Sanada Nobusuke speaking.” said the voice through the phone, lazy with sleep. It was very early in the morning in Egypt, and Sanada’s elder brother had never been good with early morning like Sanada was. 

“Nii-sama?” asked Sanada, and he heard a slight intake of breath from the other side as his brother rustled and there was a slightly confused female voice from the other side as well.

“Genichirou?” asked Nobosuke, sounding very concerned. “Shouldn’t you be at school right now? What’s the matter?”

Sanada took a deep breath breath in. He couldn’t force the words out of his throat, as he stared down at the phone in his hands. His pride was choking him even now, but how did he even begin to ask for Nobosuke’s help? 

There was a slightly soft touch at his elbows, where a grudging Yukimura, placed his hand. “I’m still mad at you.” he mouthed, but Sanada knew that this was as good as Yukimura forgiving him for having erred.

“Genichirou? What’s wrong? Is it Sasuke? Oh god, please don’t let it be Sasuke! Genichirou?” demanded his brother’s panicked voice from the other side and he could hear a woman’s voice a little clearer now, from the other end. 

“It’s not Sasuke.” said Sanada, taking a deep breath. “It’s me. Nii-sama, I’ve never asked you for anything. Even though I may disapprove of your actions and what you do with Sasuke, Sasuke’s happy and you’re happy, so I’ve never asked anything. But I’m asking now. I need your help.” 

“...Genichirou?” asked Nobusuke, sounding genuinely concerned. “What’s up?”

“There’s a spirit here, that’s been following Seiichi since we went to take pictures at ojii-sama’s house. I thought we got rid of it with a spirit ward at Seiichi’s house yesterday, but it just brought more spirits in the morning and now Seiichi can see them.” Sanada explained, slowly. “And....” he trailed off as his mind jumped to the blood.

“There was a cat ripped apart in the unwarded part of Rikkai, and the spirit left a message of Free Me in the cat’s blood.” added Yanagi, quietly, as he leant over Sanada’s arm to talk into the speakerphone. “Is that normal?”

“No.” said a female voice, who Sanada instantly recognized as Fuji Yumiko. “It really isn’t. I’m assuming that is ‘Seiichi’?” she asked.

“No, that’s me.” said Yukimura, into the phone, as his licked his lips unconsciously. “Yukimura Seiichi. Yanagi Renji was just speaking.”

“Right, Yukimura-kun! Syuusuke’s mentioned you. Anyway, Sanada-kun said that you can see spirit? Can you elaborate? To what extent?” crackled Yumiko’s voice, sounding enthused. Sanada passed the phone to Yukimura and frowned. He’d wanted to ask something else, but it was probably better to clarify details first. 

“I see them as clear as people. Except most of them are injured or really pale. Like, white as paper pale.” said Yukimura, as his fingers slid up and down the phone. It was starting to feel rather chilly inside the deputy headmaster’s room and Sanada frowned. The window was shut. Surely...?

“Renji,” he whispered as Yumiko continued to confirm how they looked. “Is this part of the school new or old?”

“Old. Very old.” whispered back Yanagi, with a nod. “We’re standing close to the air conditioner in his ceiling.”

Sanada, feeling just a little stupid, turned back to the phone call, where Yumiko was making concerned noises. “And if you couldn’t see them before, this is worrying, Yukimura-kun.”

“That’s why you need to return here, nii-sama. I’m sorry, I tried my hardest, but I cannot deal with this level of spirits without dying.” said Sanada, sternly, as he took the phone from Yukimura’s hand. “You’re done with your job there, aren’t you?”

There was a slight sigh on the other end. “Genichirou, it’s not that easy.” his brother said, and Sanada growled.

“Then make it easy! I always knew that you barely cared for us, judging by how you can just leave Sasuke for weeks on end without a single email, but will you let me die as well? Is that how strong your apathy lies?!” he demanded, furiously, to the phone. To him, family was everything, and the family he’d made from Rikkai were especially so. But his elder brother hadn’t followed many of the Sanada rules. 

There was a sharp intake of breath and a murmured conversation that none of them could, before Yumiko pitched in, softly. “Sanada-kun, it’s not that. There’s only one flight back to Japan and that’s in three days. There aren’t that many flights between Egypt and Japan.” 

Yanagi pulled Sanada’s hand closer to his side of their huddle. “With all due respect, Fuji-san, couldn’t you just take a transfer flight from the Middle-East into Japan? You could make it here in time. This is worrying and we cannot do it alone.”

“Even that would take longer than you have, we would only make it back in two days, instead of three.” said Yumiko, quite clearly. “Now listen very carefully, because I’m going to tell you how to get out of this alive for now. If there’s a spirit around, that means that there’s a spirit anchor somewhere. The fact goes, there is always something keeps restless spirits in the world and makes them angry enough to attack people. Destroy that anchor, and you can eliminate the spirit from existence.”

Yukimura’s face lit up, with unholy glee at that prospect. “So there is something we can physically destroy to fight the spirit?” he demanded, with more energy than Sanada had really expected from him. 

“Not quite.” added Sanada’s elder brother, his voice cautious, but just a little shaky. “Thing is, that free me message? Sounds a bit like destroying the object could either destroy them...or make them more dangerous.”

Yanagi tilted his head, and frowned pensively, as he rocked on his heels. “Do we really want to risk meeting the spirit’s demands? If she is set free, I doubt that she would spare us any mercy. I rather suspect there is more chance that we would die.” Sanada agreed silently, it sounded quite risky and Sanada wasn’t really in the mood for any extra risks than the ones they were already taking.

“Yet, she has shown that she is willing to use force.” said Yumiko, quietly. “Either way, you would die, even if you sit and do nothing or try to hide. This plan has a higher chance of success.”

“So how do we find the object that’s keeping her on Earth? And how do I get rid of the other spirits that are also crowding me?” asked Yukimura, pulling the phone back from Yanagi’s side, with a concerned look, his pale face scrunching up a little, as he started to dance on the spot to make himself warmer.

There was a slight chuckle from the other side, that was quickly silenced by a slap of flesh. Sanada pulled a slight face as Yumiko’s voice chimed back in. “My brother can sense the presence of spirits, either in the general vicinity, or to objects. Take him to the house with the three of you and he can probably identify which object belongs to her. I’m quite sure that you know how to contact Syuusuke, but I can send him a text, to tell him that I’m asking him to do it, as well.”

Did they have to? The last thing that Sanada wanted to bring Fuji into their trouble. He would have felt the same about anyone, but he felt especially strongly about Fuji, the person who made Tezuka shudder with horror every time he thought about wasabi. Still, it couldn’t be helped. “Is that all you can give us?” demanded Sanada, with a frown. “Tell us to destroy something that may or may not quell the spirit and the help of someone who’ll only be coerced into this? Really?”

There was a long pause on the other side, before his brother’s voice trickled over the crackly line. “Genichirou, I’m sorry. I know that you’re not exactly my biggest fan at this moment - or ever really. I know that my screw-ups are the reasons that Mum and Dad are so hard on you. I know. But I need you to trust me, because I trust you and I don’t think you’re going to die. You still keep the Sanada Family Stone with you, right?”

Sanada nodded before realizing his brother couldn’t see him. “Yes, nii-sama. Ojii-sama entrusted me with it, I’d never lose it. It’s usually in my schoolbag.”

“Good, I’m glad. But okay, it’s not a family heirloom. I asked Ojii-sama to lie to you for me.” said Nobusuke, quite matter-of-factly. “It’s a low-level ward. If you take it around with you, spirits aren’t going to be able to come near you without a considerably amount of effort.”

He felt his whole understanding of the whole world crash around his ears. It wasn’t an heirloom after all? His brother had been lying to him this whole time? His _grandfather_ had been lying to him? Still, he wondered...would he have carried it around so religiously without being lied to? Sanada scowled at the phone, and Yanagi plucked it out of Sanada’s hands, quite coolly.

“Is it only effective near people?” asked Yanagi, sensibly. “Like those wards mentioned in the books in your study, Sanada-san?” 

“Yeah, that’s right. So keep that on you, and you should be okay.” said Sanada’s brother.

“You didn’t bring your schoolbag to the old house, because we went on a weekend. You only had your phone when we were running from my house. And you put the backpack down when we were digging, didn’t you?” asked Yukimura, as he ran through their run-ins with the spirit. “So...maybe it does work?”

“However...” interrupted Yumiko, her voice worried and soft. “There’s a chance that it might not be a spirit. It’s acting strangely for a spirit, if it latched onto Yukimura-kun. There are few spirits strong enough to latch onto a person, and if it’s still around even after being ripped away by the ward....Well, in any case, be careful.”

This wasn’t really helping Sanada’s hopes for surviving. If anything, he felt more apprehensive than usual. “Wait.” he said, as he swallowed away the lump in his throat, “Is iron supposed to work against spirits?”

“What? No.” said Sanada’s brother, instantly. “That’s like for kappa or something. You can’t really fight anything incorporeal with a weapon. I mean, they take a shitton of energy and time to be able to interact with the material realm, but even when they’re interacting with corporeal stuff, we can’t touch them.”

Yanagi’s mouth parted slightly as he turned to look at Yukimura with a slight frown. Yukimura’s eyes widened and he crossed his arms across his chest, with an expression that clearly expressed his belief in his own sense of being right. Sanada just pursed his lips together and ended the call for Yanagi, with a curt farewell.

“It worked, I’m telling you!” said Yukimura, as Yanagi passed Yukimura his phone back.

“Yes, but I think perhaps it wasn’t supposed to work.” said Sanada, with a frown. 

Yukimura scoffed slightly. “What, you think that Child of God nickname is working or something? Your brother’s just mistaken. That doesn’t seem to be something entirely out of his capabilities.”

Well, Sanada couldn’t deny that. Still, something told him that his brother wasn’t wrong in this instance. “Just text Fuji.” he said, with a click of his tongue, as he took a seat. It would be a long wait for the police to arrive. 

Yukimura just snickered slightly and his fingers started flying across his typepad. “You hate being wrong.”

“Look who’s talking.” retorted Sanada, scowling. 

“Cut of the same cloth.” murmured Yanagi, looking supremely amused. 

“You’re the same as well!” Sanada exclaimed, glaring at the taller boy. As if Yanagi didn’t get irritated when his data was incorrect or he made a mistake on any of their homework.

“I never said that I wasn’t cut of the same cloth as you two.” said Yanagi, with just a little too much amusement. Sanada growled and Yukimura laughed, slightly dryly. 

(X)

The chill was so bad that Sanada honestly wasn’t sure whether it was the weather or the spirit now. It truly was feeling like winter already. At least they’d managed to stop at Yanagi’s house to grab torches and extra jackets, though Yanagi’s coat on Yukimura was hilariously big. Yukimura rubbed his hands together and threw glances towards the deserted country rail-station entrance.

“Why don’t they have a indoor station? asked Yukimura, with a frown as the train rumbled down the tracks towards the platform where they were waiting. 

“We’re in the middle of nowhere, Seiichi, it’s unlikely that the government wanted to waste funding on a station that’s so rarely used.” said Yanagi, as he leant forward to glance at the number. “Ah, this one will be stopping, that’s the train from inner Tokyo.”

Yukimura grimaced and glared at Sanada. “Why does your family have houses in the middle of nowhere? You couldn’t have had a house in Kyoto or something? Niou has a house on Shikoku. And Renji’s aunt has a gorgeous onsen out in Kumamoto. And then your family has this...”

“Everything in the Sengoku period was spread out. There were a lot less people and since it was a farming feudal system, there was no need for communication through anything. No need for houses to be close to each other. And the Sanada family had control over this area of the land because we had the largest koku production underneath Masamune.” explained Sanada, patiently with a slight smirk and Yukimura elbowed him, with an amused look, though it’s impact was cushioned by the thick coat.

“Most people wouldn’t think you’re as much of a smartass as Renji, but you are.” Yukimura commented, as the train drew to a stop and the doors opened with a hiss. Three businessmen walked out, looking quite tired, and a slightly ruffled-looking Fuji swung off the train, with his school satchel slung over his shoulder and his Seigaku regulars jacket underneath his haphazardly attached coat. 

“Fuji, you’re late.” barked Sanada, with a slight frown.

“Maa, _gomen_.” said Fuji, in a tone of voice that indicated that he wasn’t very sorry at all. “I would have been here earlier, but we had extra laps to run today and I needed to stop by my house to grab something.”

“Thank you for coming anyway, Fuji-kun. Now, can we get out of here? There is this ghostly dog thing near the rubbish bin and it looks annoyed and I’d rather not be around here when it gets very annoyed.” said Yukimura, as he briskly started pushing himself away from the railway station. 

Sanada shot a look towards the rubbish bin. There wasn’t any sign of a dog, or even of movement. He shot a look back to Yukimura, and frowned again. Still, Fuji looked very interested.

“You can actually see it? Tangibly?” asked Fuji, curiously. “That’s quite a gift. You could make a lot of money with that.” 

Yukimura’s eyebrows raised and he laughed, dryly. “No offence, but tennis is my main focus right now. And if I was going to choose an alternate career, spirit hunting wouldn’t be it.” He brushed back his hair, with an annoyed look and Fuji just shrugged.

“Each to their own, I suppose.” he said, as his eyes darted around the slightly desolate landscape. “I heard about the scene at your school today?”

Sanada, Yukimura and Yanagi all exchanged glances and grimly nodded. “It was disturbing and definitely caused by the spirit.” said Yukimura. “But how did Seigaku get word? You’re all the way in Tokyo.”

Fuji laughed, lightly. “The gossip network is very rapid, you know.” he said, conversationally. “And the police cordoning off areas of the school and sending everyone home early and to not return tomorrow was the only thing that most Rikkai students were talking about to Inui.”

Sanada’s lips pursed together, with a slight, sudden amusement as he realized exactly why Fuji was so late and ruffled. “You got extra laps from Tezuka for spreading gossip, didn’t you?” he asked, feeling satisfied. He and Tezuka had very similar sensibilities sometimes. 

Fuji just quirked his eyebrow, with an unimpressed look. “Of course we did.” he said. “Tezuka takes every chance to make us run more.”

“How are Seigaku doing, anyway?” asked Yanagi politely, after some moments of tense silence between them. Sanada made no attempts at conversation with Fuji: he didn’t want him here with them at all. In all truth, Sanada didn’t want to be anywhere near this house without his brother and a lot of salt, but since his nii-sama was useless....

“We’re doing well. Our practise continues under Kaidoh’s guidance. He does well, even Tezuka says so.” said Fuji, evenly. “Inui and Oishi have quit the club to focus on their studying though.”

“That makes sense. Getting to a good high school is important, after all.” said Yanagi, with a nod. “I’ll probably do the same once we hand over our club to Akaya.”

Fuji’s smile tightened, with something sharply interested. “You haven’t handed your club over yet?”

Sanada just pursed his lips and Yukimura tilted his head, with a smile that promised death. “Why give up tennis so early? Akaya has to work for his position.” he said, pleasantly and Fuji’s smile only grew wider.

“Is that so? Has he not been working for the rest of this year then?” This was one of many reasons why Sanada hadn’t wanted Fuji along. For all that Yukimura and Fuji somehow managed to get along with each other about many things, when it came to tennis, they were both fiercely protective of their teams. That wasn’t to say that Sanada wasn’t, but that Yukimura was more vicious about it. 

Yanagi coughed slightly. “Akaya has been working just fine. Different teams have different decisions. Tezuka is generally a more hands-off captain and Seiichi is a lot more hands-on. That is because we have different teams. ” he said, quietly and Sanada thanked his lucky stars again, that Yanagi was their friend and was skilled in dissipating fights.

Fuji just lifted an eyebrow. “That so?” he questioned, with an amused look. “Inui’s always making comparisons between how similar our tea--” he broke off and pressed a hand to his nose, with a serious frown on his face. 

Yukimura’s brow twitched. “Fuji-kun?” he asked, coolly. 

“Does anyone have a tissue?” asked Fuji, his voice a little muffled, through his thick coat covering his mouth. “I think I have a nosebleed.”

Yanagi rummaged around his jacket, and pulled one out, and Sanada wasn’t even surprised anymore. Yanagi was just very prepared all of the time. Fuji dabbed the white square to his nose, and kept it there, as he tilted his head forward. They all walked a little slower for Fuji who looked quite irritated. Yanagi frowned. “Are there spirits here, Seiichi?”

“Nothing here.” said Yukimura, with a concerned look at Fuji.”

“There’s something at the house.” Fuji said, finally, as he pulled the tissue away, with a sniff. “I can feel it from here, that’s why. It’s definitely powerful.”

“Good or bad?” asked Sanada, with a frown.

Fuji stared at Sanada, with a slight look of incredulity. “I’m bleeding. I think that’s enough of an answer, Sanada.”

“Then let’s go back.” said Sanada, simply. “We’ve established that it’s powerful enough to make you bleed from here and that it’s an evil spirit. We should leave this alone.”

“I didn’t think that you were a coward, Sanada-kun.” said Fuji, as he stuffed the tissue into his pocket, with another heavy sniff. “I told Yumiko nee-chan that I’d help you get rid of a spirit, so we’re going to do just that. It’s just a nosebleed.”

Sanada scowled, very harshly. He didn’t appreciate being called a coward, not in the slightest, especially for something that was merely common sense. “Fine. If you bleed out, it’s your fault and not mine.” he said, as he strode forward, with a tight scowl. 

“Okay,” said Fuji, with another sniff. “Where did you see the spirit when you first went to the house?”

“The garden. Well, we didn’t see it, but she attacked us there” said Yukimura, with a nod, and a slight frown. 

“That means that’s where the spirit will be this time as well, and where the object that ties her to the mortal world is. Either her remains or some other object of sentimental value to her? Also, it usually is something manmade. Rarely something from nature.”

“How do we tell if something’s in the garden if it’s overgrown?” asked Yukimura, his curly hair fluttering in the wind, his frown only larger now.

Yanagi smirked, widely, not letting Fuji open his mouth. “Seiichi and I told you that you’d need the iron.” he said, to Sanada, who rummaged around in his backpack, where the Sanada Family Stone sat, like a deadweight. 

He pulled out the iron that Yukimura had taken from his house previously and nodded, as he shoved it into his coat pocket, where it would be easier to access. “I’ll cut up the grass if we need to. It’s a shame that we didn’t bring some sort of shovel. I doubt there’s anything left in the house.” 

Fuji shrugged, with an amused laugh. Yanagi took in a deep breath, as he drew closer to the front garden. “Shall we?”

Sanada was about to walk up to the knocked-over door when he heard a sharp fit of coughing from Fuji, who was clutching his sides. A little bit of blood-stained saliva hit the ground and Sanada’s eyes widened. “Fuji.” he growled, as he grabbed Fuji’s side and made the slight boy lean against him. “Too late to back out now.” he rebuked. 

Yukimura pressed a hand to his head, with a slight wince as Sanada and Fuji walked a little closer towards the front-garden. “You can feel it getting stronger, right?” gasped out Fuji, to Yukimura. 

Yukimura shrugged, as he massaged his temples, with a gloved hand, pushing away Yanagi’s slightly concerned touch to his elbow. “I just have an awful headache.”

Fuji laughed dryly, and coughed pathetically. Sanada elbowed Fuji in the side. “Shut up, don’t bleed out before we find the object, then you’ll have been useless.” he barked, coldly, to get over the sense of horror and fear and the overwhelming instinct in him that told him to run. 

He dragged Fuji to the door, and Yukimura and Yanagi followed, as they stepped into the dusty house, not staying long enough to inhale the putrid smell or to choke on the dust. The door to the backgarden was still open from their last visit to the old house and Sanada pulled them through, quickly, into the undergrowth. 

Yanagi came to support Fuji’s side and Yukimura clutched his head, as they walked into the overgrown garden. Sanada’s skin was crawling with how unnatural this place felt, but he pulled out the sharp iron piece anyway, and started hacking away at the grass, as quickly as he could. It was difficult to do, especially alone, but he forced himself to get through it.

“Renji, flashlight. It’s dark and cold.” he called, as he felt the light dim, and his own motions to slice through the green, tangled mess became wracked with slight shudders of cold. Two beams of light illuminated his progress, shakily and Sanada kept pushing, ignoring the burn in his shoulders from the sudden onslaught of labour, with his backpack weighing on him more than it usually did. 

“I can’t see her anywhere.” said Yukimura, weakly. “But it’s still cold....” Sanada was well aware that this wasn’t just normal cold, especially if he could feel it so starkly. 

“To the side!” called out Yanagi, from behind Sanada. “Near the wall, isn’t that a well?” 

So it was. Sanada hacked away at the ivy growing over it, that had made him think the ornate well was just another part of the crumbled back-wall, with a savage sense of satisfaction. It was nice to be able to deal with something physical, and not have to think of salt and prayers and running. Just cut and slice, like his morning iado. Simple, peaceful and uncomplicated. He understood Yukimura’s need for just being able to fight it now, honestly. It got rid of the hopeless feeling that built up when you couldn’t do anything. 

He cleared away the final layer of the ivy and and glanced down. Blackness. He couldn’t tell if there was anything at the bottom, like a woman’s bones or some object. 

“I can’t see anything.” said Sanada, as he removed his backpack to get the flashlight from inside of the bag. “Does this thing even have batter-”

“DEMON!” screamed Fuji, and Sanada whirled around with a slight look of panic, before he felt a vice grip clutch around his stomach and _pull against him_. He could only see whirling transparent blue and hear cackling, as his sense started to disorient, like Yukimura’s yips, but worse. He grunted and struggled to try and get out of her grasp, clawing at whatever he could reach, which was just crumbly stone that barely supported his grip. 

“Genichirou!” he heard from a slight distance as his vision and sensations on his skin started to blacken. It was definitely feeling like yips and Sanada could almost feel himself slipping into the mind-world that he fell into when Yukimura took away all of his senses on the tennis courts. Was this what a spirit did? It wasn’t so bad, was it?

His sensation abruptly returned, as he felt a yank in the other direction. Up. “Genichirou!” he heard a bellowed voice, one very familiar. “Sanada, grab my hand, Yanagi’s grip is failing!” he heard another, less familiar voice, and he fumbled upwards, his hands catching nothing every time. “Higher!” he heard and Sanada grunted and pulled upwards, as hard as he could. 

His hand caught something and finally, his vision returned. Fuji and Yanagi’s arms were around him and the spirit was pulling him in the other direction, down towards the bottom of the well and with a grunt, and a rush of adrenaline, he pulled upwards, almost vaulting himself through the two slight boys. 

“Come on!” yelled Yanagi, as he pulled Sanada and Sanada’s backpack up and they started to run. Yukimura was bent over on the ground before the garden, head in hands, and Sanada grabbed his waist, and pulled Yukimura from the floor as he ran, aware that he was probably hurting Yukimura with the abrupt yank. 

Still, that managed to startle Yukimura into running along with Sanada, and they stumbled through the dusty house, following Yanagi and Fuji, who were up ahead. “She’s still coming, I can see her.” Yukimura panted, as they put their lap times to good use and propelled themselves out of the old house. 

Sanada kept them running down the deserted road and Yukimura’s breath caught. “Sanada, she’s still following us!” he screamed. 

Sanada’s eyes widened. What did he do, what could he do? The family stone- a ward, wasn’t it? He shrugged off his backpack, and threw it in the vague direction of the laughter, as he pulled Yukimura’s hand and pulled them further forward, until they were abreast with Fuji. 

“She’s still coming!” yelled Yukimura, “And you just lost a backpack! It’s activated by human touch, remember you moron?”

Sanada groaned as they kept running. His lungs were starting to burst from the cold and breakneck speed. Laps were never run like this and his body was protesting. 

“There!” yelled Fuji, as he pulled them towards a random house on the road. “It’s got a ward, hurry up!” Yanagi turned back, and followed them, as all four of them ran towards the austere house, with some neat foliage growing in the front garden and a large wooden door. Fuji reached the door first and banged on it. “Please let us in, there’s someone coming, please!” he yelled. Yukimura joined in with his breathy voice and Sanada just added to the banging. The door swung open, the four boys fell in and slammed the door behind them, as they slumped back against the wall, eyes shut and Sanada jerked up when Fuji let out an angry growl.

“Demon. You didn’t tell me it was a demon!” accused Fuji, with one of the coldest expressions that Sanada had ever seen on the other boy in all of the three years that Sanada had been acquainted with him. 

“I didn’t know it was a demon! Nothing would have happened if you’d just agreed to go back home when _you started coughing up blood_.” Sanada retorted, angrily, as he straightened up, wincing at how sore his ribs were. The demon lady’s hands had squeezed so tightly and her face... 

“Well, I thought it was a spirit, didn’t I?” spat out Fuji, with a furious look, ignoring Yukimura’s tug at his sleeve. “If I’d known that it was a _demon_...”

“Well your _sister_ ’s the one that brought up the idea, why don’t you ask her?” demanded Sanada, with a snarl, as he shook off Yanagi attempt to detract his attention from Fuji. 

“ _My sister_? Are you blaming her for not telling me? I asked for all of the information on the situation and you missed out the biggest piece of all of this! Of course this behaviour doesn’t fit a _spirit_!” snapped Fuji, as Yukimura coughed insistently. 

Sanada’s hands balled into fists, as he refrained from hitting Fuji. “It was just a theory and it’s not like we can _see_ either so--”

“Shut up, _both of you_.” called Yukimura coldly, with a frustrated expression on his face. “Respect our host!” 

Host? What host? Sanada turned his tunnel vision away from glaring at Fuji, to see the face of one Ryuuzaki Sumire, coach of Seigaku’s tennis team, giving them an unimpressed look. “Are you boys done?” she demanded, looking impatient and Sanada nodded, dumbfoundedly and Fuji just smiled, deceptively, with a soft, “Yes, Sumire-chan.”

“Don’t you sass me, Fuji.” snapped Ryuuzaki, before her face softened a little as she swept her gaze along them, lingering on Fuji’s bloodstained coat, the slightly faded blood on Yukimura’s trousers and his pale complexion and Sanada’s laboured breathing. “You boys look like hell warmed over.” she said, looking quite worried. “SAKUNO!”

There was a clattering on the stairs, and a small girl with braids peeked her head over the staircase, headphones slipping out of her ears as she gripped the rail to steady herself. “Yes grandma?” she asked, before noticing the four of them at the door. “Oh! Fuji-senpai. Rikkaidai...” she said, with a confused look and a slight flush on her cheeks. Sanada recognized her vaguely from Nationals, but he didn’t pay too much attention to people who weren’t his rivals. 

“Get these boys some hot chocolate, won’t you?” she asked and Sakuno clattered all of the way down the stairs, and slipped into the kitchen, with a shy nod to all four of them. Ryuuzaki showed them into her living room, after they all kicked off their shoes, and she bustled around the small boxes that were in the floor, as they all awkwardly took seats on her sofa. 

“Ah, my son keeps his house with such disorganization, I can’t find anything of his. And then his clothes would only fit Fuji, he’s very short for a badminton champion.” she chattered, softly, as she frowned at the boxes. 

“Was too short.” commented Sakuno, quietly, headphones around her neck, as she came back with five steaming cups, handing them to everyone with quiet grace and a soft smile for Fuji. 

“Was...too short, yes.” said Ryuuzaki, with a slightly forced smile. Sakuno handed the last cup to her grandmother with a slightly sad smile and drifted out of the room. Sanada frowned darkly as he glanced towards Ryuuzaki. It was evident that her son had died...which meant that it was Sakuno’s father who had died. It was interesting how emotionless the young girl seemed to be about that, but the more important factor here, was the fact that there were wards on a newly built house like this. 

“You have wards over this house...did your son die here?” asked Sanada, quietly and all of the other three glared at him, with force. Yes, he knew it wasn’t the most tactful way to ask the question, but it had the fewest words and speaking hurt a lot more now, as the adrenaline of running faded away. 

Ryuuzaki’s eyes sharpened and she nodded, crossing her arms across her chest, clearly interested in them. “Yes. He did.” she said, shortly. “He’s not returned yet, as far as I know.”

“He’s not here.” said Fuji and Yukimura together and Ryuuzaki nodded, with a slightly sad expression in her face. She didn’t question their words and Sanada wondered just how extensive her knowledge about the otherworld really was, if she could so easily accept their statement. 

“Then he is resting in Yomi, where he should be.” she said, definitively, as she pulled out some towels from another box and threw them over to the four crowded together on her sofa. “Do you boys need anything else? How badly are you all injured?”

Yanagi met Sanada’s gaze inquisitively and Sanada shook his head. His ribs were bruised, but not broken. They would hurt with more intensity, were they broken. “We’re all fine. Just tired.” said Yanagi, with a slight smile. “Perhaps some painkillers if you have any.”

Ryuzaki nodded, as she sipped from her cup. “That much I can do. And I suspect that you boys aren’t too keen to leave the house and walk back to the train station, hmm? How about I give you all a ride home? Sakuno and I will be leaving in half an hour when we’re done cataloguing, and there isn’t as much stuff here as we thought there was, so there should be room for you boys as well.”

Yukimura bowed, softly and gratefully. “Thank you very much, Ryuuzaki-sensei. That would be much appreciated. Would you like us to help you in anything while we’re here?” he asked, his voice carefully tailored to the tone he used for his favourite teachers. 

“Heavens no. I wouldn’t put you all to work in this state. I suspect you would collapse over the boxes.” she said, with a stern look and a wave of her hand, as she rummaged through a cupboard outside of the living room. “Just stay there.”

She threw a box of pills towards them and Fuji caught it, easily, as her footsteps trailed away from the living room. Sanada took a deep sip of hot chocolate from his cup and they stared at each other in silence.

“Regardless of how we screwed up, we’re alive now.” said Yanagi, coolly. “And we have to decide what to do next.”

“If she’s a demon, there are different steps involved.” said Fuji, tiredly, as he shivered slightly and stared at his cup, morosely. “Demons don’t need to latch onto anything. They just wander the earth. There’s nothing that ties her to the house.”

“There’s a process that allows them to latch onto humans, isn’t there?” asked Sanada, as he glanced towards Yukimura, whose eyes were firmly down into the chocolate. “Otherwise, what purpose did she have in following Yukimura home without killing him?”

Fuji shrugged, loosely, as he drained his cup of hot chocolate and pulled his. “I don’t know. Your place has a library, doesn’t it? Let’s go there and try to figure it out.”


	4. Rush

It was nightfall by the time that all of them reached Sanada’s house, and Sanada was firmly scolded by his mother for bringing guests home so late without warning, but she and his grandfather seemed quite enamoured by Ryuuzaki’s no-nonsense attitude and allowed all of the four of them to escape to Sanada’s room with less fuss than another occasion. Sanada really hoped that his grandfather wasn’t going to try and make a regular friend out of Ryuuzaki however - two members of Seigaku being tied to their family was more than enough.

Still, as they settled into Sanada’s room in their night clothes, Yanagi looked up from the stack of books that he and Fuji had taken from the library opposite Sanada’s room. “Demons stay on Earth for a purpose. They don’t need to latch onto anyone unless it suits their purpose.” he said, as he flicked a page over and kept reading.

Fuji glanced up at Yukimura, with a contemplative look on his face, his head tilted and his eyes usually open. Yukimura heaved a sigh from where he and Sanada were sat with their history homework and threw a pillow at Fuji’s face. “Can you stop looking at me like I’m a piece of meat?”

“You got the ability to see spirits just this morning and a demon decided that it was important that you were useful to its purpose, Yukimura-kun. You don’t think that’s interesting?” asked Fuji, with a slightly amused smile as he caught the pillow and aimed it back at Yukimura.

“It’s just a major pain in the neck.” said Yukimura, crossing his arms across his chest, as he caught the pillow and sat on it. “So fine, how do we get rid of it?”

“You can’t get rid of a demon without an immense amount of power.” said Fuji, as he leant forward, his hair flattening against his pale neck, “It’s easier to figure out what it wants with Yukimura-kun and try to deflect that.”

“Well, if the cat is any indication, it wants freedom.” said Yanagi, not looking up from his books. “Free me, it said. And Seiichi was the first to see the message, so I’m assuming it was aimed to Seiichi.”

Fuji looked quite interested. “The gossip didn’t mention that.”

“Only four students saw the roof.” said Yanagi, with a slight frown. “And the only one who could have spread anything was too disoriented by it to have seen anything except blood and guts.” Sanada frowned, he couldn’t exactly begrudge Aira-chan her fear, but he wished that she hadn’t spread it everywhere. 

“It’s definitely targeting Seiichi. It followed Seiichi home after we first came here and when we set up the wards, it was choking Seiichi.” explained Sanada, as he placed his history textbook away, aware that he probably wasn’t going to be able to get ahead on studying now. 

“It wasn’t choking me. It was trying to stuff itself down my neck.” said Yukimura, casually. 

Fuji paled, backed away and dived for his coat. He grabbed something from his pocket and threw it at Yukimura, with force. Yukimura sneezed as he brushed off the small smattering of white salt from his face. He pulled a face. “Urgh, Fuji, I have salt in my nose, oh god.” he said, as he sneezed some more, with tears pricking out his eyes. “Was that necessary?” he asked, glaring with as much force as he could muster. 

Fuji nodded, still looking a little uneasy. “Demon possession...or partial possession isn’t something to be taken lightly. And if it tried to go into Yukimura-kun at all, it partially succeeded. Something transferred to Yukimura-kun, that’s why he can see spirits. You’ve heard of it before too, haven’t you Sanada?”

Sanada leant back and nodded, with a frown. “Demon possession allows people to be able to see spirits afterwards. But so do near-death experiences. I mean...nii-sama told you that Sasuke can see spirits after his possession?” he asked and Fuji nodded. “Yumiko-nee-chan told me, as well.” he agreed.

“Near death experiences are less likely than demon possession, aren’t they?” asked Yanagi, as he rapidly ruffled through the pages of one of the books. “Twenty-eight percent chance of seeing spirits after near-death experiences and fifty-eight percent chance after a demonic possession.”

Sanada knew Yukimura’s expressions well enough to tell, that even through his tears of pain, he was incredulous. “It’s not a demonic possession.” said Yukimura, as he sniffed, and wiped away the tears from his eyes. “I’d be able to tell.”

“Not necessarily. How can you tell when your mind is already as it is...?” asked Yanagi, with a sly smirk and this time, Yukimura’s pillow went towards Yanagi, who dodged, with a slight laugh. Yukimura’s smile was vaguely amused as well and Sanada felt a fond smile touch his face. 

“Then let’s check.” said Fuji, as he glanced down at the book on his lap. “Let’s summon a spirit and see whether they recognize demon in Yukimura-kun. We can probably get some other answers too.”

Yanagi tilted his head, with a surprised expression on his face. “A séance?” he asked, his pronunciation careful. 

“Those actually work?” asked Yukimura, with an incredulous laugh. “I thought that was just something they used in horror movies.”

“If you use the right summoning materials and you have someone who can actually sense spirits, yes. Otherwise, it’s usually just a fraud.” said Fuji, with a slight laugh. “Yumiko-nee-chan likes to show them up and intimidate them for cheating people out of their money.”

Sanada let out a bark of laughter. Now that he could see, Yumiko was a scary woman when she needed to be, and he was pretty sure that was why his brother was so enamoured with her. “Why not just summon the demon and ask her whether she stuck part of herself into Seiichi?” asked Sanada and Fuji raised an eyebrow, carefully.

“You really want to bring her into a room, trapped by a very tenuous spirit circle, Sanada-kun to ask her a question that she will not want to answer?” he asked, dryly. “It’s far easier to deal with another spirit.”

“So do you know someone who can summon spirits?” asked Yukimura, tilted his head sideways, as he tucked a strand of hair behind his ear.

“No one who isn’t a fraud.” said Fuji, with a shrug. “I think Yuuta might know...but we’re still not on speaking terms.” he said, stiffly, though his smile was perfect, Sanada had experience with Yukimura smiling when he was angry and Yanagi smiling when he was sad, and Fuji was both right now.

“Hiyoshi-kun knows how to do an actual séance.” said Yanagi, calmly. “I remember Oshitari mentioned it once, in a conversation. We can call him. Doesn’t he go to the same martial arts summer programme that you do, Genichirou?”

Sanada nodded, carefully, as he folded his hands into his lap. “I don’t have his number. If you have his number, I can call him and ask.” he said, seriously. “But do we really need to bring more people into this?”

Yukimura elbowed Sanada, with a scowl. “Oi. My life at risk, my decision to make.” he reminded. “I say bring him in. We need all the help we can get, since evidently, Fuji-kun doesn’t know how to do a séance. If this needs to happen, let’s make it happen.”

“Not here. The wards are too strong for any spirit to get through.” Fuji vetoed, as he stretched his long limbs, in the too large yukata that Sanada had leant him. 

“Ojii-sama’s dojo hasn’t got any wards.” said Sanada, crossing his arms across his chest as he straightened. “Leaving here for too long seems like a bad idea, so let’s do it here.” 

Yanagi nodded, as he gently closed his book shut and placed on top of the slightly skewed pile of textbooks still to his side. “And it’s not the séance requires that much. I could gather it all from your mother’s kitchen. So that much is easy.”

The four of them exchanged slightly trepidatious glances and Yukimura laughed, amusedly. “That’ll be a story to tell. ‘What did you do with your day off, Yukimura-senpai?’ ‘Oh, just did a seance and got rid of a ghost, nothing much, how about you?’”

Fuji giggled and Yanagi snorted softly, into his hand. Sanada just sighed, slightly. 

(X)

The next morning, just after dawn, was a little cold in his dojo, but he and Yukimura were working hard in rolling out the mats over the tatami floor precisely, which made the cold feel less biting against his skin. The séance involved drawing complex chalk circles on the floor, but Sanada refused to do anything that could even possibly change the way that the tatami floor was now, so they were drawing out mats to make the séance easier to do.

Yukimura’s feet jumped every time the balls of his bare feet touched the cold tatami and he glared at Sanada every time Sanada snorted at the sight of dignified Yukimura Seiichi bouncing, like a little girl who was scared of spiders. 

“Not all of us do cold training first thing in the morning.” said Yukimura, as he dragged another mat out to the far end of the dojo, with little effort, bouncing his way there. 

“Of course not, that would involve you being awake in the morning.” deadpanned Yanagi from where he was seated outside the dojo, crushing and cutting up some herbs that he and Sanada’s mother had been eagerly discussing, as Fuji had stolen them from under her eyes. His eyes looked tired, but Sanada didn’t blame him. Last night, he had been woken up by some rustling movement and he had seen Yanagi panting in his futon. After some prodding, he’d discovered that Yanagi had dreamt of the demon ripping up Sanada and Yukimura like she had ripped up the cat. They hadn’t said anything to Yukimura or Fuji, in the morning. 

“Like you’re any better, Renji. If it weren’t for your sister throwing off your blankets, you’d never make it in time to drag Akaya to school.” retorted Yukimura, as he kicked the mat flat and smoothed out the creases in the plastic. 

“I am not the one running into practise with only minutes left to spare. Neither am I the captain.” said Yanagi, with a slightly amused smirk.

“It works for me.” said Yukimura, cheerily, “Cold reminds me too much of being in the hospital, anyway. One thing they never tell you is how draughty it is in there. No matter how many blankets you wear, your feet will always be cold when you get up in the morning.”

Yanagi sobered a little and Sanada pursed his lips, as he tossed down another mat. Yukimura seemed more casual about mentioning hospital nowadays. He brought up experiences as if they were amusing anecdotes to tell, rather than painful memories for all of them. Honestly, Sanada wondered if Yukimura was actually getting over his hospital experience, or he was pretending flippancy.

There was a sound of a doorbell ringing at the front door and Sanada heard Fuji’s footsteps from the garden patter away towards the main house. Sanada started rolling his mat out faster and Yukimura quickened his pace as well. 

“Just to confirm, you already met a spirit and a demon and you want me to summon you another one?” asked Hiyoshi’s voice as it came closer through the garden.

“Yes, that’s correct.” said Fuji, with a vague smile, as they walked up to the dojo door. “Is that a problem, Hiyoshi-kun?”

“N-no.” he said, as he came into Sanada and Yukimura throwing the final mat into place, with Sanada wincing slightly, at the end, placing a hand to his damaged ribs “We’re doing it here, Fuji-san?”

“Yes, the only place that isn’t warded.” said Sanada, with a nod and a bow to the newcomer, as Yukimura idly smoothed out the mats around the dojo. Honestly, this would have been less work if Sanada had only covered the area that was supposed to be where they sat, but Sanada didn’t want to take any chances. “How are you, Hiyoshi-kun?” he asked to the younger boy. 

“Not bad, Sanada-san.” he said, with a expression that tried its hardest to be blank, but Sanada was pretty sure was excitement. Hiyoshi bowed and in his hurried manner, almost dropped the ouija board. Resisting the urge to snort, Sanada instead handed Yukimura the book with the pattern. He’d insisted on drawing the circle himself, even though Sanada had offered to help. 

“You can’t see anything around here, right?” asked Fuji, casually, as he looked around. “I can’t feel anything.”

“No spirits around, as far as I know. Which is weird, since they were flocking around me the last time I was anywhere not near a ward.” said Yukimura, as he scooted around in drawing the circle, his fingers quickly drawing out the symbols in the picture. 

“We should be grateful for that.” said Yanagi, as he brought up the bowl and crushed herbs. “It would be hard to draw a spirit circle when fighting off spirits, I imagine.” he said, as he stand over and watched him work. 

“We are currently close enough to a ward to probably fool them.” said Sanada, crossing his arms over his chest, careful to not press too hard against his chest. “Once you put the oil and the herbs out, they should flock here?” he asked, directing the last part of his question to Hiyoshi. 

Hiyoshi nodded, with a slightly displeased look on his face. “In theory, yes. In practise...well, when Zaizen, Choutarou and I tried it some time back, nothing happened.”

“I don’t think we’re going to have any trouble with getting spirits to show up, frankly.” said Yukimura dryly, as he finished drawing the circle and dusted off his hands. “Just as long as you know what to say and do.”

Hiyoshi nodded, as he got into seiza on the edge of the circle. “Alright, you already have the oil and the herbs, but I need three candles, and a white flower. A knife, salt and then someone needs to cut themselves over the oil.” he said, very matter of factly and Sanada just raised his eyebrows. 

Sanada was about to volunteer, when Yukimura cut him off. “Go grab some candles, Genichirou. And doesn’t your front garden have some flowers still?” he asked, and it was a cold tone of voice laced with a command. Sanada didn’t follow commands so easily, but they rarely showed any sort of cracks in Rikkai solidarity in front of other teams, so he stiffly nodded, tightened his jaw and strode away from the dojo.

He knew exactly why Yukimura was sending him away to get things, even though Yanagi knew his home well enough to be able to gather both. He knew that logically, Yukimura’s blood was the best choice for summoning a spirit, but he didn’t like seeing Yukimura hurt for anything. He didn’t like seeing any of his friends hurt. He would much rather take that burden, and Yukimura’s dismissal was the prevent him from offering his blood.

His collection of the flower was a little more rough than it needed to be, and when he returned to the dojo, Yukimura’s fingers were bandaged and the olive oil was more orange than it had been before. Hiyoshi had already set out a huge crystal on the edge of one of the stars inside the circle and when Sanada deposited the candles, he quickly lit them, with a lighter from his pocket.

A small part of Sanada wondered exactly why Hiyoshi had that, but chose not to dwell on it as he handed the flower to Fuji, who ripped off five petals for each of them, before placing it on top of the crystal. 

Hiyoshi placed the board down next to the bowl. “In theory, you’re not supposed to use a ouija board when there are five people.” said Hiyoshi, as he looked at the oil instead, his face slightly furrowed into a frown. “But I prefer it. So everyone place your hands on the board. Don’t remove your hand from the board until the spirit goes away, or else we let it free.”

Sanada frowned as he knelt down in seiza next to Yukimura and Fuji and placed his hand on the board. “Right.” said Hiyoshi, taking a deep breath as he flicked through the book and started slowly something in an amalgamation of languages. Sanada recognized chinese, and older dialect of japanese and something that sounded french. The candles flickered and Yukimura gasped as he glanced up at a corner. 

Hiyoshi kept chanting, looking more excited now, as Yukimura’s gaze flickered down to the bowl of oil, with a slightly disgusted look. Hiyoshi quickly finished and breathed out, with a slight smirk. “Are you acquainted with the demon who attacked these people?” asked Hiyoshi, eyes focused on the ouija board.

Sanada leant forward a little, as did Yanagi. The thing about not being spiritually gifted was having to rely on everyone’s reactions and Sanada didn’t like being this helpless. The glass drifted over the word ‘no’ and Hiyoshi frowned.

“Can you tell us about the demon who attacked these people?” he asked, but this time, the glass slid over to the 'yes'. Sanada nodded, with a slight satisfaction. 

“What is she?” asked Hiyoshi and this time, the glass slid over the letters slowly. Yukimura twitched slightly in his position and Yanagi frowned as he finished reading it. “Demon of the highest order.” he murmured, softly. 

“Just our luck.” muttered Yukimura, softly and Sanada nudged his knee, reassuringly, as Hiyoshi started speaking again. 

"Is she in Yukimura, this boy here? Is a part of her in the blue-haired boy?" asked Hiyoshi, his frown slightly ferocious. The glass piece slid to 'no' and Fuji sighed a little, his shoulders unstiffening rapidly. Yukimura tried to look unaffected, but even his shoulders seemed more relaxed. This much was good news, in any case. 

“Then...what is a demon of her rank on Earth for?” Hiyoshi’s voice was shaking a little, either from fear or excitement, he couldn't tell. Either way, Sanada couldn’t help but feel a sharp sensation of regret for getting someone else involved in their trouble. If he’d told his grandfather no back in the beginning of all of this....

“To be free like all of us truly desire.” read Yanagi, slowly, as he read the board. 

“Free? In what way?” asked Yukimura, interrupting Hiyoshi. Hiyoshi glared a little, but the spirit seemed to accept any questions from anyone, as the glass started moving again. 

“Freedom.” read Yanagi, dryly. “How helpful.” He quirked his eyebrows at Sanada and Sanada just pulled an unimpressed face. It wasn’t as if Yanagi was equally unhelpful at other points in his life.

“What can free her?” asked Fuji, and this time Hiyoshi tossed a frustrated look to the ceiling. 

“Zhong Kui will set us free.” Yanagi read, looking supremely confused. Sanada shook his head. It sounded familiar, but he honestly didn’t know. Fuji frowned and shook his head and Hiyoshi shrugged. 

“Who’s Zhong Kui?” he asked for all of them. The glass didn’t start moving however and Yukimura snorted slightly. 

“I don’t think it appreciates the question.” he said, with a frown, his eyes moving above his head. “It’s trying to leave now. Like it could. God, if it keeps being like this, I’ll just chuck a tennis ball at it, I swear.” Fuji snickered, slightly and Hiyoshi glared at him for ruining the atmosphere. 

“It doesn’t matter what Zhong Kui is. How does Zhong Kui set them free?” demanded Sanada. There was a slight pause, where Sanada wondered about the spirit, but the glass did start moving again. 

“Eat us.” Yanagi said, his jaw tightening. Even more concise than its other answers. Yukimura pulled a disgusted face, his nose wrinkling and Fuji’s mouth twitched. 

“Spirit chow, how appetizing. I don’t think we can eat a demon, though.” said Fuji, with an amused look and Yukimura and Sanada snorted in unison. The image of Fuji running after a spirit with chopsticks was unintentionally amusing.

“Is the freedom of a demon the same sort of freedom as that afforded to a spirit?” asked Yanagi, who didn’t look affected by their joking, in the pursuit in some sort of question...which honestly didn’t relate to what they were trying to do. Sanada glared at Yanagi, they were having enough trouble with the spirit!

The glass didn’t move. Yukimura shook his head, with a faintly worried expression on his face as he reached the hand that wasn’t on the ouija board, up to his face. “It’s really trying to leave.”

“Last question then.” said Sanada, placing both hands on the board. “How do we defeat her?”

The glass seemed to take longer to be dragged across, or perhaps Yanagi was just reading it slower. “Zhong Kui will free her.” he said, quietly and Sanada leant back with a little frustration. 

“Release the circle, Hiyoshi-kun, we said it was our last question.” said Yanagi, with a sigh. “It isn’t good to break promises.” Hiyoshi nodded mutinously, flicked a couple of pages in the book and started speaking again, in a mixture of languages, but sounded quite reluctant to do so. Sanada, in lieu of wondering why Hiyoshi wanted to keep an uncooperative spirit in the room with them, wondered instead whether Hiyoshi understood all of the words he was saying. Was that something they taught at Hyotei? Would even _Atobe_ have been able to do this?

As soon as the circle was released, the candle flickered out completely and the only sound in the dojo was the faint hissing of the candle, as the five of them looked at each other. Yanagi sighed, and pulled out his phone, quickly. “Zhong Kui....” he muttered and he typed and Yukimura quickly scooted from his place to peer over Yanagi’s shoulder. Sanada moved over as well, and Fuji and Hiyoshi leant over his shoulders, to glance down at the small screen.

“Not much of a looker, is he?” commented Yukimura, with a slight laugh, ignoring their conversation, as he regarded the messy beard, squat face and wild eyebrows of the man in the pictures of Zhong Kui.

“No, he isn’t. In fact, according to this, it’s what got him dismissed from the Emperor’s service, despite being one of the best scholars of the time.” said Yanagi, as he read the wikipedia quickly.

“That’s a little harsh. The Emperor could have used a paperbag first before outright dismissing him.” said Yukimura, quietly and Fuji giggled softly. Sanada just rolled his eyes, though he agreed with Yukimura. It was a waste of talent to dismiss someone because of their outer appearance, when their inner appearance was better. 

“The shock got to Zhong Kui so much that he committed suicide and went to Yomi. But the Spirit King, upon meeting him was impressed by the man’s story, and instead of condemning him for killing himself, promoted him to demon-slayer who went around to kill all of the demons in the world.” Yanagi continued, a slight smirk on his face from the commentary. 

“I know this story.” said Sanada, with a frown. “Didn’t he then go onto save the Emperor from an evil spirit and the Emperor begged him for forgiveness and made the person a deity?” he asked. everyone turned to look at him with shock and Yanagi tilted his head slightly, as he nodded slowly. 

“But it wasn’t Zhong Kui. His name is Shouki.” said Sanada, with a frown, as he crossed his arms over his chest, hiding his slight pain at bringing his arms down too hard against his ribs. 

“Zhong Kui is a chinese name.” pointed out Fuji. “It’s probably just the name change from chinese to japanese.”

“Okay, so how does Shouki kill demons?” asked Yukimura, determinedly, as he drew his knee up to prop his chin up. 

“Eats them.” said Sanada, with a slightly apologetic look.

Yukimura threw his hands up in frustration and swore under his breath. “Of course they do.”

Fuji frowned. “Okay, so there is no way to kill this demon because they aren’t tied to objects. We’re nowhere closer to knowing what she wants because we have no idea how to get to Zhong Kui. If we go back to Sanada’s old house, we get attacked by her and it’s not like we can really walk into the vicinity of the house without difficulty either. So what now?”

The five of them looked at each other and Sanada cleared his throat. “Leave it be.” he said, quietly. “Two days, Seiichi stays at home behind wards. Pretend to have a cold or a fever or something, and then Yumiko-san and Nii-sama will arrive and get rid of her. We can’t fight her without killing ourselves.”

Fuji nodded, with a slight shrug, as he unfolded his legs from seiza and crossed them instead. “I’ve done all I can. I don’t like leaving it here, but...what can we do? We have no information to go on.”

Yukimura’s frown was large as he leant back a little, balancing his weight on his hands. “Fine.” he said, curtly, in the tone that indicated he didn’t like the idea, but didn’t disagree with it, either. 

Hiyoshi glanced at all of them with a surprised look. “You’re all just giving up?” he asked, looking incredibly weirded-out. “Haven’t you watched a single horror movie in your life? When they leave it be, the thing usually comes and kills people.”

“Well, we’ve already almost died four times trying to chase it, so I’d rather take my chances with staying back.” snapped Sanada, with a scowl. He’d just convinced his friends to stay back from danger instead of running towards it, who was the Hyotei kid to tell them that they were doing things wrong?

Hiyoshi’s scowl was fierce, but he shut up easily. “Alright, whatever.” he said, as he snapped his book shut and got up. Yanagi picked up the bowl of olive oil and blood and between them, they all picked up the objects of the seance. Yukimura quickly smudged the chalk deliberately, to create a hole in the circle and the room automatically felt less cold. 

“Need a ride back?” asked Sanada, to Hiyoshi and Hiyoshi shook his head.

“No, I’ll walk. I don’t have a first or second class lesson, so I’ll be okay.” he said, coolly, with sharp bows to everybody. “Good luck, Sanada-san, Yukimura-san, Yanagi-san, Fuji-san.”

Fuji grinned, as Hiyoshi walked away. “Unlike him, I’m just skipping school.” he said, cheerfully. “You don’t suppose you could write me a note for Tezuka, so I don’t have to run extra laps for cutting practise? Somehow I don’t think that telling him I was taking part in a seance for ridding Rikkai’s Big Three of ghosts, will be accepted without proof.”

Yukimura laughed, loudly and Sanada just rolled his eyes with a sigh. 

(X)

It was raining by the time the afternoon rolled around and the three of them were relaxing on Sanada’s futon, as the water sounded against the windows and walls. Yukimura’s legs swung in the air, as he sketched and listened to music on his stomach and Yanagi’s legs were sprawled over Yukimura’s back as he quizzed Sanada on how to say argumentative phrases in chinese. 

Even if Rikkai had the day off because of the cat incident, Sanada wasn’t going to let it go to waste. They’d already lost plenty of time in chasing the spirit and he was determined to make the most of the spare time they had now, by studying. Yanagi had agreed with him, even if Yukimura had looked disgusted by the prospect. 

“You won’t regret it.” said Yanagi, in Japanese and Sanada sighed, as he wracked his brains. he knew this, he couldn’t afford to be this slow-

He paused as the ringtone for his phone sounded. He reached for it, answering it in the three rings that he usually did. “Hello, Sanada speaking.” he said, slightly grateful for the extra time to try and remember his Chinese words. 

“Sanada-kun?” asked the tinny voice. “This is Hiyoshi-san, from the martial arts competition. Can you pass the phone to Wakashi?”

Sanada frowned as he straightened a little, ignoring the twinge of pain. “Hiyoshi-kun isn’t here, Hiyoshi-san. Why did you think he was here? He went to school.”

"I called his schoolmates, and they said that he’d come to your house after-school?” she said, slowly and Sanada felt his blood freeze in horror. Yanagi’s legs pulled away from Yukimura’s back as he stared at Sanada with a slight look of horror.

“No Hiyoshi-san, Hiyoshi-kun came to my house this morning. We haven’t seen him since.” Sanada said, and this time, Yukimura looked up from his sketch, pulling out one of his earphones with a look of confusion. 

“Is that so..?” she asked, sounding worried. 

“Ask around his other friends, Hiyoshi-san. Then call me back, please.” said Sanada, with a worried sigh. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”

“No, it’s no problem, Sanada-kun.” she said, and she sounded like she was on the verge of tears. Sanada ended the call and frowned at Yanagi. Yanagi’s expression was just as grim as his was. They both knew where Hiyoshi had gone. 

“How did he get the address of your house?” asked Yanagi, with a slightly confused look. 

Sanada shrugged. He didn't know. “Google?”

Yukimura’s jaw tightened, as he paused his music and pulled out both earphones. “You want to go after him.” he said, as he pulled himself up to a crouch.

Sanada nodded. “I don’t think he realizes how bad she is.” He didn’t want to return back to that house. It would haunt his dreams, he knew. He would dream of those corridors and that overgrown garden and the feeling of his ribs tightening as she’d squeezed the life out of him-- but he couldn’t let someone else get wrapped up with those memories as well. 

“He was worried about our safety when we agreed to leave it alone. I think we have the responsibility to worry about his.” murmured Yanagi, with a nod. Yukimura heaved a small sigh, but got to his feet anyway.

“He’s got a head-start on us. I think we need to get there faster than train.” said Yukimura, with a determined look on his face. “Genichirou, your phone?”

Sanada tossed over his phone and Yukimura punched in a number, before holding the phone up to his ear. “Ryuuzaki-sensei?” he asked, sweetly and Sanada squeezed his eyes together in despair. “Do you think you could do me a really large favour? I’ll pay it back somehow.” he said, glaring at Sanada, with vicious force. 

Sanada just gritted his teeth and stood up, to put on his coat. Yanagi quickly followed suit, as Yukimura continued to pace across the length of Sanada’s room with the phone by his ear.

“Yes, it’s to do with yesterday. Yes, yes, a student went missing, we have reason to believe he went to the place where we were before. No, not a Rikkai student, someone we asked to help us-- Yes, well obviously that failed, sensei.” said Yukimura, with the tone of exasperated politeness. “Please? I worry that if we take the train, we’ll be too late to save him.” There was a long silence after that and Yukimura’s shoulders relaxed a little. 

“Thank you. I’ll pay you back. I really will, sensei. Thank you.” He then hung up the phone and glared at them, his blue eyes fierce. “What are you standing around for? She said she’d be here in twenty minutes, we need to get shit together. We knows it’s a demon now, so how do we fight a demon?”

Sanada turned to Yanagi. Yanagi looked a lot more confident than he did. “You have to use the same things for a spirit but more of it. There is some special blade which kills demons, but we obviously don’t have that. The only way to fight a demon is ward it off. Either with an actual ward or salt.”

Of course it was. “I think we are going to have to stop at a conbini then.” said Sanada. ‘If we take any more salt, my mother is going to be very confused.” Not that his family weren’t already a little baffled by how often he was away from the house for these past couple of days and the friends he kept inviting over, but at least that could be explained by teenage rebellion. Salt was a little more difficult to explain away.

Yukimura nodded. “Right, Renji, you should go and grab some; if you jog, it’s only a mile away. You’ll make it here and back. Oh, and hey, Genichirou, you know that shrine next to the street corner? How much do you bet that any water left there counts as holy water?” he asked, as his mind worked quickly and he started pacing again, his footsteps strong against the tatami. 

“Perhaps..?” asked Sanada, but he was already stepped out of the room, pulling his coat around him a little faster. “Mother, we’re leaving for a little bit!” he called, as he quickly followed Yanagi out of the house, his breath instantly becoming more laboured at the effort of running.

When Ryuuzaki-sensei came to pick them up (somehow in twenty minutes, despite it being peak rush hour in Tokyo), they were quite ready. Flashlights, holy water, some rope, some bandages and burn cream for Hiyoshi and lots and lots of salt. The three of them quickly piled into her backseat, with grateful nods.

“You boys look like you’re going to fight a war.” said Ryuuzaki, with a slightly concerned look, as she turned her car out of Sanada’s house and swerved her way to the freeway. Even with his seatbelt buckled, Sanada felt like he was going to be thrown out of the car, with her erratic driving. Still, his granddaughter barely looked fazed, in the front seat, so Sanada tried to school his expression to be more neutral. 

“Spirits are no laughing matter.” said Yanagi, his voice a little breathless from his quick jog and Ryuuzaki just nodded.

“Ahh, well, if you boys are looking for this old woman to fight spirits, it’s not going to happen.” she said, with a slight scowl. 

“No, just a ride there. Our parents don’t believe.” said Yukimura, softly. “We didn’t believe until events exacerbated.” His laugh was dry as he tightened his scarf around his face and Sanada just tightened his jaw, as he focused on getting through the car ride. They drove in relative silence, only stopping as Sakuno pointed out speeding cameras, and shortcuts or fields that Ryuuzaki could drive across to get them to Sanada’s old house estate with more speed. It looked very rehearsed and Sanada was starting to wonder how often Ryuuzaki-sensei involved herself in speeding across the country and breaking several laws. 

At that pace, it didn’t take very long for any of them to get to Ryuuzaki’s estate. “Just wait here?” asked Sanada, as Yanagi and Yukimura instantly disembarked and started to jog towards the house. “We’ll bring him out here.”

Ryuuzaki nodded, seriously. “You boys be careful.” she said, with a large frown. “If you take longer than twenty minutes, I’ll call the police in to help.”

Sanada wasn’t honestly sure that the police would be able to do anything helpful at all, but he supposed that it was the thought that counted. He nodded, before he started jogging to catch up with Yukimura and Yanagi, stopping to pick up his backpack along the way, which was still left at the side of the road from yesterday. 

Yesterday. It felt like an eternity ago. Still, he kept pushing forward, despite the deep pain that his ribs were giving him, until the dark house’s doors were visible. They didn’t pause once, as they leapt over the front garden and its overgrowth, running straight into the house. “Hiyoshi-kun?” called Yukimura, into the depths of the house and the darkness there.

There was no response. “We know he’s not there.” said Yanagi, as he pulled them both out to the garden. It looked messy from Sanada’s hacks through the matted grasses, and Sanada could see the large chunk of iron at the base of the well. The three of them quickly rushed over the well, Yukimura wincing softly, as he clutched his head. Still, he seemed far improved from his condition yesterday. 

As they glanced down the well, Sanada frowned. He couldn’t see anything, but as Yanagi quickly pulled out a flashlight and shone it down into the depths, he thought he could spot a head of brown hair. “I think that’s him.” panted Sanada, with a deep frown, as he pulled out his own flashlight to add to the light. That was definitely the mushroom cut of the Hyotei boy. 

“Did he fall...?” asked Yukimura, softly and they all exchanged looks. If he’d fallen, there was no doubt that he was dead. 

“How likely is that when she tried to pull me down there yesterday, Seiichi?” asked Sanada, forcing himself to hope, with a deep frown. “Let’s go down there anyway. Someone tie a rope to the edge of the well, and I’ll scale down it.”

“Don’t be stupid.” said Yanagi, coldly, as he shrugged off his heavy coat. “You can barely breathe and you’re going to scale down a well wall, pick up Hiyoshi and then come back up again?” He pulled out the rope from his pockets and knotted it firmly around one of the old rusty wheels that stuck out of the wheel.

“Hold this while I descend.” said Yanagi, as he looped the rope around his middle and his hips a little, before knotting it securely. Sanada’s expression was mutinous, but admittedly, he wouldn’t have known how to tie those knots and the makeshift harness that Yanagi had managed to make. He gripped the rope tightly, with Yukimura’s own considerable strength helping him pull, as Yanagi clambered over the well wall and started going down. Sanada released the rope slowly, at Yanagi’s command and his entire body felt paralysed. If his strength faltered even once, Yanagi would plummet to his doom. 

Yukimura finally gave up, pressing a hand to his head, as he leant back against the well. Sanada’s muscles tightened in response and he tried to remember that he was able to lift up Yanagi on most days. This wasn’t much different. “Seiichi, salt circle.” he said, his voice laboured and husky. 

Yukimura wearily piled some salt around their feet, in a vague semi circle around the well and Sanada felt a little safer as the weight on the rope suddenly reduced and Sanada found himself pulling forward a little, with the sudden lack of force.”He’s alive.” yelled up Yanagi and Sanada could only exhale in relief.

And he froze in horror, as his breath crystallized into a fog, upon his breath. Sanada felt the chill touch his fingers and paled. Yukimura evidently noticed as well, as he staggered to his feet. “She’s here. Renji, she’s here. Hurry up!” yelled Yukimura. There was no answer. Sanada and Yukimura exchanged horrified looks, pained blue eyes meeting horrified brown eyes They both peered down the well, only to be greeted, with a horrific, burned face. 

It was ten times more bloody and ghastly in person. Nothing could have prepared Sanada for the chill of pure fear that coalesced down his spine, like ice making its way through his veins. His ribs flared sharply with a cold ache and he hissed, as it went to his brain.

Sanada jerked backwards, pinwheeling a little, as he attempted to not step out of the circle, and managed to fall backwards onto his back instead, scattering the salt everywhere. His hands closed around the iron shard of metal from yesterday and he brought it up quickly, as she advanced on Yukimura. He slashed her quickly, but nothing happened. He tried again, launching into a swift kendo kata, but it barely affected her.

That high-pitched eerie laughter started again, as Yukimura started to choke and back away from her, as he dropped back into his palms and crawled away. Sanada dropped the iron shard for useless and reached for the handful of holy water that he had collected from the shrine, still inside Renji’s abandoned coat. Before he could do that, however, Yukimura’s hand closed around the shard instead and swiped upwards, against her disfigured face. 

There was a high-pitched shriek and Sanada winced as it pierced through his skull like those newer fire alarms in Tokyo. But the demon looked physically affected and Yukimura pulled himself to his feet, with a viciously satisfied grin. “Come!” he yelled, as he slashed the shard forward against the demon quickly. 

Sanada stood for a moment, dumb-founded as Yukimura did the impossible. _You weren’t supposed to be able to fight demons like that._ But he had other matters to worry about. He staggered forward to the well again, grateful that Yanagi’s knot around the squeaky metal wheel had held, and Sanada gripped it again. “Yanagi, start climbing!” he yelled, as he felt the adrenaline run through his veins.

He had the strength to pull up Hiyoshi and Yanagi. He really did. Even as the force tugged against his arm sockets, like they were about to dislocate both of his arms, Sanada gripped the rope tightly, like a vice, as he pulled upwards at the same time that Yanagi and Hiyoshi pulled themselves up. 

It was slow progress. But it was progress nonetheless. It felt like no time at all was passing, but it also felt like a whole year was slowly crawling past, as he focused on his breathing and the strain of the rope against his muscles. Still, his mind was hyper-aware of his surroundings, and from the corners of his eyes, he could see Yukimura staggering around the garden, his eyes flashing as he attacked the demon. Sanada didn’t understand why it was working. 

Fuji had said that it required immense power to be able to defeat a demon, the sort of power that couldn’t be easily obtained through other means. The ghost had said that only Shouki could bring freedom to the demon and to spirits, but Shouki was a demon killer. He vanquished demons and returned them to Yomi. Why would a demon want to leave Earth? It didn’t make sense.

If he took the assumption that Shouki wasn’t just a myth told to scare people into not taking things at face-value, Shouki had that immense power required to vanquish demons. And if this demon wanted to die, as stupid as it sounded, they would latch onto someone who could help them die. The only person who could help them die would be Shouki, so logically, that would be the only person they latch onto. 

...and suddenly it made sense, and Sanada wondered how much faster Yanagi or Yukimura would have figured it out, had they been in his place, instead of fighting. Upon seeing Yanagi’s face just centimetres from the top of the well, Sanada pulled the rope taut, and leant against the rope, to keep it taut. He then offered his hands down to pull up Hiyoshi’s cold hands, and pull the martial artist up and out of the well. Yanagi had managed to get a grasp on the edge of the well, and he too pulled himself up. 

Sanada, assuming that Yanagi could manage it, finally turned around to look at Yukimura’s fierce hands, as he pushed back against the demon, leaving hissing trails of smoke in the wake of the shard of iron. His hair was messy and he looked just as fearsome as he did on the tennis courts.

“Seiichi, don’t fight her!” he yelled. “You can’t get rid of her like that!”

Yukimura didn’t drop his weapon, however, just scoffing weakly. Sanada rolled his eyes and shouted. “Don’t you get it? You’re Shouki! You have to eat her!”

Yanagi’s eyes widened as he draped his coat over Hiyoshi’s broad shoulders and stared at Yukimura, with a horrifying, dawning realization. Yukimura himself blinked, his hand dropping to his sides in sheer shock of Sanada’s statement, rather than anything voluntary. but that was enough of a chance for the weakened spirit. With a screech, she dived for Yukimura’s throat, but instead of ripping it out, she started to stuff herself down his throat. She faded out of vision as soon as she hit his face and all Sanada could see what Yukimura choking and coughing, as he dropped down to his knees. 

Sanada rushed over to Yukimura’s side, but Yukimura stopped choking as he reached out to touch Yukimura’s elbow. Brushing off Sanada’s hand, Yukimura stood up, as if his hands hadn’t been shaking and he hadn’t been almost dying just seconds before. His smile was relaxed and Sanada frowned.

“Seiichi?” he asked, cautiously. Had he been wrong? Had it been a demonic possession?

Yukimura turned towards the broken wall, his eyes sharp and focused there, ignoring Sanada altogether. There was a pretty young woman with scar marks across her face, and a stab wound on his blue kimono. She looked Yukimura in the eye and Yukimura just nodded, deeply, and Sanada felt deeply worried. Then she faded away into the chilly air and the four of them were left in silence. 

“Hey, demons taste better than I thought.” said Yukimura, with a shaky laugh and Sanada’s laugh in response was almost hysterical. Yanagi couldn’t stop smiling and Hiyoshi leant back against the well, with a small exhale of breath. His face looked pocked with bruises and small cuts, but he still managed to look better than Sanada felt currently. 

“Why in God’s name did you come here, Hiyoshi?” demanded Sanada, with a frown. He felt tired and really wanted to sleep, but he had to know exactly why they had risked their lives and come here. 

“It was sorta obvious that he was Zhong Kui.” Hiyoshi said, dryly, tilting his chin to Yukimura, who looked unimpressed. “But all of you were just going to leave it as is. So I thought I'd deal with it. Didn't quite work out, though." He didn't seem altogether fazed by his injuries or even the fact that he could have almost died. 

“Was it worth getting caught by her?” asked Yanagi, with a frown, as he touched one of Hiyoshi’s cuts and watched the younger boy wince slightly.

In response to that, Hiyoshi just grinned and held up the camera around his neck. It was an old kodak, not a digital camera. “I got a picture of her. Everything was worth it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Samhain! May the dead treat you well today (and may you eat lots of candy). Story wraps itself up in the next chapter, the epilogue.


	5. Epilogue

“And then he bloody well tells us that it’s worth it for a flipping picture, and I almost slapped him there.” said Yukimura, with a huff as he crossed his arms across his chest, as they finished the tale of events. Sanada turned his attention away from a second, as he heard Sasuke’s delighted laugh. Nobusuke was flying him around the room like an aeroplane and Sasuke looked happier than he’d seen his annoying nephew look, for days. Sanada smiled, a little, as he leant back in his chair. 

Yumiko laughed, delightedly. “And then Ryuuzaki-sensei took you home? I always knew that she was nicer than she pretended to be in Maths class.” Sanada had almost forgot that he had gone to Seigaku as well, even if it was some time ago. 

Yanagi nodded, as he adjusted his hakama. “She and Sakuno-san were very helpful. I feel like we owe them more than just a favour.”

“No.” said Yukimura, flatly. “She knows how to use her favours too well. Hanamura was talking to me about how Sakaki owed her a favour, and she managed to get the entire Hyotei team to a tiny mountainside cabin, got them cleaning and playing tennis against her team. Not risking anything more.”

Sanada didn’t really think that it sounded like such a bad thing, but then again, it was the fact that she’d managed to get _Hyotei_ doing that, which was quite impressive. 

The older women flicked her hair back, looking quite amused. “So the demon wanted to die?” she asked, as she glanced down at her nails. 

“Yeah.” said Yukimura, snapping away from where he was glaring at Yanagi. “She died some while back. She had the misfortune of being married into Sanada’s family unwillingly from both ends. Her husband had a mistress, a lower-status lady, and they wanted to get married, and they could only do that with her dead. So they stabbed her, mutilated her and shoved her down the well. It was a pretty violent death, so she came back as an evil spirit.”

“And demons can be made from extremely angry spirits.” said Yanagi, with an understanding nod. 

“So, she’s definitely sorted? You got rid of her spirit and the demon?” asked Yumiko, seriously. 

Sanada nodded. “Yes definitely.” he said, quietly. 

“Yeah, so now it’s sorted, can you get rid of the Zhong Kui thing? I can still see spirits and they still line up around my place harping on about freedom and trying to shove themselves down my throat.” said Yukimura, with a very irritated look, as Sasuke whooped and started running away from Nobusuke trying to squish his cheeks. “It’s quite clear that it’s some sort of title and I don’t want it.”

Yumiko, with ultimate grace and serenity, shrugged. “I don’t know.” she said. “Zhong Kui isn’t someone I’ve ever heard of out of myth. I don’t think my contacts will know either, but I’ll check with them if you really want. But, it’s more up to you.”

Yukimura’s eyes narrowed, and with a sharp movement, he threw a tennis ball at her. She glared at him, rubbing at the spot on her arm. Yukimura looked quite unapologetic. “I have been threatening to throw tennis balls at unhelpful spirits and you are the most unhelpful.”

“Is anyone threatening my lady?” asked Nobusuke, with an amused look, as he wound his arms around Yumiko’s neck, mock-protectively, and she pressed a kiss to his cheek, lovingly. “I shall fight you to the death!” he declared to Yukimura, who just rolled his eyes, with an amused look. 

“I’d beat you.” said Yukimura, dismissively.

“Oh ho?” asked Nobosuke, a glint in his eyes and Sanada just glared at his brother, crossing his arms over his chest.

“How are you a father of anything?” he demanded. “You can’t even stop yourself from wanting to try and fight someone ten years younger than you.” Yukimura was infuriating sometimes, but this wasn’t even something worth fighting over. 

Yumiko laughed, and pinched Nobusuke’s cheek. “Sanada-kun’s got a point, there, you know.” she said, fondly. “It’s a good thing that I’m around, isn’t it?” she asked, with a wink, as she tossed Yukimura’s tennis ball back to him. 

Yukimura caught it in one hand and Yanagi snorted slightly, as she continued to twist Nobusuke’s ear, until Sasuke deposited himself onto her lap and demanded attention and playtimes with them. The two adults stood up and followed him out into the garden and Sanada watched them go, with a slightly wondering look.

“Do you think Sasuke’s really okay with only seeing nii-sama this infrequently, Renji?” he asked, as he glanced at his nephew. 

Yanagi tilted his head, his gaze not moving from him watching them. “It’s what he knows and considers normal. Besides, he gets their entire attention when they are here. He knows he’s loved. You don’t need to worry about them.”

Yukimura just nodded in agreement. “They’ll be fine. Yumiko’ll be good for Sasuke too. The only thing you’ll have to make sure is that Fuji doesn’t abuse uncle position and try to feed Sasuke wasabi.” he said, with a wry laugh. Sanada just shut his eyes briefly, he couldn’t imagine with having to deal with Fuji at family events. Still, it wouldn’t be _entirely_ dreadful, he supposed. 

“Now, me on the other hand...” muttered Yukimura, looking a little resentful. “What do I do with this many spirits, huh? Your family is useless about this and I really, really don’t need more spirits in my life. I meant what I said about not wanting to have this as a career. I can’t just shove this onto your brother by thinking really hard?”

Sanada snorted at the image of his brother being chased by spirits who wanted to be eaten by him. “Like it would put him off being an idiot. He’d be worse than usual.”

‘Have you tried it yet?” asked Yanagi, with a quirk of his eyebrows. 

Yukimura shook his head, shut his eyes and turned towards Nobusuke and Yanagi clapped a hand over his face, tossing a look towards Sanada, with amusement. Sanada just shook his head, with a slight laugh. If it worked, it served Nobusuke right. Still, after a few moment, Yukimura threw his arms into the air.

“I have no idea if it worked or not.” he said, with a ruffle of his hair. “I’m going with no. This sucks.”

“You could make spirit exorcising a hobby, instead of a career. Play tennis and in your spare time, eat spirits.” he said, his voice dry. 

Yukimura laughed, almost hysterically. “Imagine if a media person catches me doing that? They’d think I’m a loony! And hobby implies that it’s fun. No part of this debacle has been fun, unless near-death experiences are supposed to be fun.”

“Well, it’s hardly like this was anymore dangerous than tennis. Tennis has just as much chance of killing us as this has.” Sanada commented, dryly, as he probed his bruises and concluded that he’d definitely had worse when Akaya had smashed a ball into his ribs, while in Devil Mode. 

Yanagi and Yukimura both started laughing loudly at that and even Sanada couldn’t stop slightly weak chuckles. It wasn't going to fix any problems, and it definitely didn't wrap up their loose ends, but with his brother back in the country and there being no immediate danger for the three of them, he felt it easy to relax again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AND I AM DONE WITH THIS MONSTROSITY :D If you liked it, leave kudos or comments :) Thank you for everyone who helped out so far and thanks so much to my beta and idea-bouncer, Sumiya.


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